SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE

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Ms. Melanie Gangel - 2 - 3 January 2017 The ESA Report identifies the nitrate and 1,2,3-TCP groundwater contamination from the Former Helena Chemical Facility as a potential threat to the 1488-1625 Tillie Lewis Drive property. The Central Valley Water Board is providing oversight for the ongoing characterization and delineation of the nitrate and 1,2,3-TCP contamination at the Former Helena Chemical Facility. The responsible party (Raymond Investment Corporation) has committed to fully cooperate with the Central Valley Water Board and is in the process of assessing the extent of the nitrate and 1,2,3-TCP contamination to evaluate remedial action alternatives. During site investigations conducted in May 2016, nitrate was detected in groundwater at a maximum concentration of 210 milligrams per liter as Nitrogen (mg/L as N), above its maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 mg/L as N. The maximum 1,2,3-TCP detected was 12 micrograms per liter (ug/L), which exceeds the California Public Health Goal (PHG) of 0.0007 ug/L. Based on the information provided, Central Valley Water Board staff believe that nitrates and 1,2,3-TCP that have been detected at the Former Helena Chemical Facility may impact groundwater at the 1488-1625 Tillie Lewis Drive property. Any detection of these chemicals at the 1488-1625 Tillie Lewis Drive property should be evaluated with consideration of the Former Helena Chemical Facility as the source. California Water Code section 13304 authorizes Regional Boards, among other provisions, to order any person who "causes or permits"waste to be discharged where it "creates, or threatens to create, a condition of pollution or nuisance" to clean up the waste or abate the effects of the waste. The State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) in interpreting section 13304 has found the following classes of persons to be responsible as either causing or permitting a discharge of waste: (1) owners and operators at the time of initial discharge; (2) current property owners; (3) interim property owners in certain circumstances; and (4) certain lessees of property. In all of these State Board orders, the source of the groundwater pollution was at the property itself. The State Board has not addressed the issue of whether a property owner would be responsible for groundwater pollution underlying the property where the source of the pollution is off the property. Several Regional Boards, however, have included such owners as a responsible party in a section 13304 Order where access on their property was necessary to complete clean up or investigate the groundwater pollution, and the owner failed to provide reasonable access. In such cases, the orders did not require the owner to clean up the ground water, but rather, to provide reasonable access. Based on the State Board's past orders, an owner of property overlying groundwater pollution originating from an offsite source is unlikely to be held responsible for that pollution except for purposes of access or unless activities on the property exacerbate or contribute to that groundwater pollution. So long as operators at the 1488-1625 Tillie Lewis Drive property do not cause or permit, or have not caused or permitted, a discharge from the subject site, do not exacerbate, or have not exacerbated, the existing pollution, and do not deny reasonable access to address the nitrate and 1,2,3-TCP plume, such as allowing for the installation of groundwater