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a E John Lynch,president of Wright Environmental Services,tests a soil sameen dple from 15 feet below 10th Street where a plume of gasoline-contaminated soil has betected• Risk to Tracy soil may be low � Nmvard J naLnNsu However, county Officials say the plume Poses no public health tisk since the Contain- TRACY—Environmental experts Monday 'nation is shallow, well above the 1,000-foot said underground contamination from an old deep city water wells in the area. downtown gasoline tank is not expected to Nevertheless, the contamination has to be pose a public health risk although it will measured and then monitored until officials have to be monitored for some time. determine the site is clean, said Margaret La- A Portion of 10th Street was closed for gono' lead senior environmental health spe- aeveral hours Monday so tecluticians could ciahst for San Joaquin County Health investigate the contamination. The Services. leak was first discovered in 1991 but nvesti- M8`M is dust one of more than 400 con- gations have been delayed by the 1 tarlated sites that the county is overseeing backlog of underground tanks. large for the state's underground tank program unter Technicians measured a plume of gaso- �Of those sites, 200 involve rio said. line-contaminated soil about 126 feet wide, contamination. The other 200 sits areesstill about 150 feet long and roughly 15 feet deep in early stages of testing where only soil con- between Central Avenue and"E"Street. tamination 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 five years to begin geologist for Tracy-based Wright Environ- formal testing of a site is not uncommon,La- mental Services. gono 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- The plume originated from M&M Automo- ther study,Palmer said. five's 10th Street ar e where an under- Remedtatt°n measures will depend on ground 550-gallon gas tank presumably how much contamination is found and the leaked for years until it was pulled out in geology of the underlying soils, Palmer 1991. added. S "We've paid about$32,000 so far and we 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." I