SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE

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Continued from 01 board staff members recommend- ed that Unocal be allowed to close the property after one more year of monitoring. A report by board staff concluded that "detectable concentrations of residual petrole- um at (Unocal's) site do not pose a threat to human health or safe- ty or the environment and do not affect, or threaten to affect, cur- rent or probable future ... uses of water." Kirk said the groundwater basin - below Pacific Avenue has already Two weeks ago, the county dis- been affected by pesticides and trict attorney's office filed a $13 intrusion of salty water from the million lawsuit against Unocal and Delta Tosco Corp., accusing them of fail "It would be crazy for anybody ing to take adequate steps to to sink a well in that groundwa- clean up pollution at several gas ter; she said. stations in Stockton and Manteca. County officials disagree. Among the sites was the former Cotulla said California Water Unocal station at 1665 Pacific, Service Co., one of Stockton's which opened in the 1940s. major water providers, has a well Tosca bought Unocal's gas sta- less than a half-mile away. And dons in 1997 after Unocal got out without adequate monitoring, it's of the gasoline-retailing business. impossible to tell how far the Kirk called the lawsuit an plume of contaminated ground- improper attempt to dissuade water has spread vertically or hor- Unocal from appealing its case to izontally, she said. the state water board. Concentrations of benzene and "We have a right under the other chemicals have barely constitution and the statute to sa�ged in the last decade, they take our case to the state water board," she said. County officials say the compa- David Irey, the county's envi- ny actually has made only mini- ronmental prosecutor, said he mal attempts to clean up the pol- filed the lawsuit because Unocal lution— excavating contaminated and Tosco were not complying soil in 1988 and installing a with the law. Unocal and the vapor-extraction system in 1996 county had been in negotiations that vented off petroleum fumes. for more than two years to try to The system operated only a few settle the case, but those talks months. broke down and the oil company "That's the only actual remedi- flied its petition with the state. ation that's been done on the "At that point, Unocal was well- site," Cotulla said. "The rest has aware that a lawsuit would be just been monitoring." filed," he said.