Gas station clean-up presents long-term cost
A number of decisions made by past City Councils are coming back to haunt current leaders as they grapple with serious financial issues in a struggling economy.
One good example involves a costly cleanup of groundwater contamination at a very visible location—the triangle-shaped vacant lot facing Imperial Highway just west of the library.
The site, former home of a gas station that closed in 1999, was bought by the city in 2004. A chain-link fence surrounds the 10,300-square-foot parcel and 17 area wells provide water samples to test groundwater contamination.
Contaminates leached from the station’s underground tanks and passed under Imperial Highway as far as Polly’s Restaurant in the Yorba Linda Station center, according to a report prepared by Assistant City Engineer Jacki Niemi.
The city spent $500,000 in Measure M sales tax revenue to purchase the property and another $500,000 of Redevelopment Agency funds to remove the tanks and check for contamination, which, consultants said, was found to 50-foot depths.
An additional $1,775,000 of redevelopment money is needed over the next five years to “close out the case” and satisfy county Health Care Agency requirements, with the land “unusable until the clean-up process is completed,” Niemi’s report stated.
And that price tag and time period will remove enough contaminate to allow a parking lot or other industrial use, the city-hired consultants noted. A business use for the land would require a seven-year, $2 million clean-up tab.
The city hoped to recoup costs from an Underground Storage Tank Fund, but money is not available at this time, and the city’s waiting-list position is lower than spots open to private entities.
The contaminate clean-up and other costs from past council actions led Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Rikel to respond to comments by former Mayor Allen Castellano reported in my Feb. 25 column.
Castellano, a 2000-08 council member, stated, “I’ve seen a lot of spending taking place within the city without a lot of tangible results.” He also pointed to lower city reserves, which “should only be used for capital improvement projects and/or litigation costs.”
Rikel emailed: “I hope you can discuss the other side of the coin [since] lots of coins will now be spent due to that [past] council’s lack of forethought and concern for the future.”
Among the financial failings noted by Rikel: firing a city manager with a year’s pay and benefits after granting a large raise, selling and paying interest on unused fire station bonds, not comparing police costs for 16 years, not charging developers for Bastanchury Road widening, bulldozing Old Town property and not phasing in new sprinkler systems.
Rikel, a 34-year resident who began attending meetings and critiquing council actions in 1991, won a seat at the dais on a reform platform in 2008.
One good example involves a costly cleanup of groundwater contamination at a very visible location—the triangle-shaped vacant lot facing Imperial Highway just west of the library.
The site, former home of a gas station that closed in 1999, was bought by the city in 2004. A chain-link fence surrounds the 10,300-square-foot parcel and 17 area wells provide water samples to test groundwater contamination.
Contaminates leached from the station’s underground tanks and passed under Imperial Highway as far as Polly’s Restaurant in the Yorba Linda Station center, according to a report prepared by Assistant City Engineer Jacki Niemi.
The city spent $500,000 in Measure M sales tax revenue to purchase the property and another $500,000 of Redevelopment Agency funds to remove the tanks and check for contamination, which, consultants said, was found to 50-foot depths.
An additional $1,775,000 of redevelopment money is needed over the next five years to “close out the case” and satisfy county Health Care Agency requirements, with the land “unusable until the clean-up process is completed,” Niemi’s report stated.
And that price tag and time period will remove enough contaminate to allow a parking lot or other industrial use, the city-hired consultants noted. A business use for the land would require a seven-year, $2 million clean-up tab.
The city hoped to recoup costs from an Underground Storage Tank Fund, but money is not available at this time, and the city’s waiting-list position is lower than spots open to private entities.
The contaminate clean-up and other costs from past council actions led Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Rikel to respond to comments by former Mayor Allen Castellano reported in my Feb. 25 column.
Castellano, a 2000-08 council member, stated, “I’ve seen a lot of spending taking place within the city without a lot of tangible results.” He also pointed to lower city reserves, which “should only be used for capital improvement projects and/or litigation costs.”
Rikel emailed: “I hope you can discuss the other side of the coin [since] lots of coins will now be spent due to that [past] council’s lack of forethought and concern for the future.”
Among the financial failings noted by Rikel: firing a city manager with a year’s pay and benefits after granting a large raise, selling and paying interest on unused fire station bonds, not comparing police costs for 16 years, not charging developers for Bastanchury Road widening, bulldozing Old Town property and not phasing in new sprinkler systems.
Rikel, a 34-year resident who began attending meetings and critiquing council actions in 1991, won a seat at the dais on a reform platform in 2008.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 PM
<< Home