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i lig ix � t �I I+MY i 2 f � t NOAH BERGER—Staff John Lynch,president of Wright Environmental Services,tests a soil sample from 15 feet below 10th Street where a plume of gasoline-contaminated soil has been detected. Risk to Tracy soil- may be low By Scott Howard However, county officials say the plume SAN JOAQUIN BUREAU poses no public health risk since the contam- T RACY—Environmental experts Mondayoration is shallow, well above the 1,000-foot round contamination from an old- deep city water wells in the area. said underground Nevertheless,the contamination has to be downtown gasoline tank is not expected to measured and then monitored until officials pose a public health risk although it will determine the site is clean, said Margaret La- have to be monitored for sometime. gorio, lead senior environmental health spe- A portion of 10th Street was closed for cialist for San Joaquin County Health —several.,hours,Monday so=technicians.could 'Services..;,A., e_,�,��„�_,,,--- investigate the contamination. The gasoline M&M is just one of more than 40`con- 1 leak was first discovered in 1991 but investi- taminated sites that the county is overseeing gations have been delayed by the large for the state's underground tank program, backlog of underground tanks. Lagorio said. - Technicians measured a plume of gaso- Of those sites, 200 involve groundwater line-contaminated soil about 126 feet wide, contamination. The other 200 sites are still about 150 feet long and roughly 15 feet deep in early stages of testing where only soil con- between Central Avenue and"'E"Street. lamination has been measured or formal "It's a very typical gas plume for this type testing has yet to occur. of (geological) deposit," said Chris Palmer, So waiting-for up to fiveyears to begin geologist for Tracy-based Wright Environ- formal testing of a site is not uncommon,La- mental Services. - gorio said. Technicians spent the morning and early In the case of M&M, it's still uncertain afternoon boring for core samples and then What kind of clean up the property owners chemically testing the samples in glass test will be responsible for. Soil samples taken tubes. Monday will go back to a laboratory for fur- ther study,Palmer said. The plume originated from M&M Automo- Remediation measures will depend on five's 10th Street garage, where an under- how much contamination is found and the ground 550-gallon gas tank presumably geology of the underlying soils, Palmer leaked for years until it was pulled out in added. 1991. "We've paid about$32,000 so far and we e Since then, the underground plume has don't have much to show for it," said Larry migrated slowly northward across the street McLean,a partner at M&M. "All because of a with the help of groundwater. little old 550-gallon gas-tank." L.