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CHEVRON : Boring in on oily soil (Continued from page AI) es and 8'/2 feet. there is a clean-up. . . . That's a Alden Park and the surround- During the next two weeks, major project," Carter said. "I ing neighborhood was home to a Chevron will be gathering soil guess we're a little cynical when major fuel-storage and distribu- samples from residential and it comes to oil operations. We're tion center from 1928 to 1957. city property and from wells in kind of wondering why it's tak- The oil pumping plant and giant 70 different locations around the en this many years for Chevron concrete-lined reservoir had the Alden Park neighborhood. to get on the ball." capacity to store 31.5 million "We finally have all the docu- An environmental site asses- gallons of low-grade bunker oil, ments that we need, and that's sment has been conducted by which was used as fuel for why we're able to go ahead with Chevron for six years through a steam locomotives. the borings," said Mike Marcy, special filtration system in the An unknown amount of crude Chevron government and public city park to extract and break oil seeped into the ground dur- affairs manager. "The results down potentially cancer-causing ing the facility's operation and will be utilized in identifying any hydrocarbon compounds in the closure. Chevron began investi- areas that are of concern." soil. About 2,200 gallons of oil gating the problem after a Palm The 6-inch samples, packed in have been removed. Circle resident discovered the blue ice, are being sent each day However, the study has not black, viscous tar-like substance to a private state-certified ana- worked out the way Chevron of- in the soil while digging a hole lytical laboratory to determine if ficials had hoped it would. for a tree in 1986. there is any risk from the con- After sinking $1.3 million into "As long as they're making tamination to humans. All infor- cleaning seepage and pumping the offer (to assess the contami- mation generated from the oxygen into the ground, the cor- nation), we're going to take chemicals in the soil will be sub- poration decided to reassess the them up on it.They've been easy miffed to Chevron, along with study to determine the location to work with," said Aaron Car- several public agencies, includ- and amount of underground ter, a resident in the 700 block ing the Regional Water Quality contamination and whether the of Sequoia Boulevard, who gave Control Board, City of.Tracy, contamination poses a long-term permission for fieldwork on his San Joaquin County Department health hazard for residents. property. "What we're con- of Health Services and the Cali- The oily soil and groundwater cemed about is that over the fornia Environmental Protection were classified as nonhazardous years, we're worried about seep- Agency. under state Department of age, and hopefully the oil will Chevron plans to send out Health criteria. However, these seep down. We may not even be newsletters and hold a commu- criteria do not evaluate the long- affected." nity meeting sometime in the term exposure to humans. But, for precautionary mea- first quarter of 1996 to announce "To find out that our kids sures, Carter and 40 other the results of the risk asses- might not be safe playing in that homeowners in the Alden Park sment. If more hazardous oil soil — it kind of makes one neighborhood granted Chevron residue is discovered, Chevron pause," Carter said. "Our main access to enter their property plans to remove it at no cost to concern is our kids. You'd like and bore for samples at four dif- the property owner or city. to feel there is a little peace of ferent depths, between six inch- "That's the scary part — if mind."