Tanks Storage

An estimated 800,000 gallons of water has leaked from a 4-million-gallon water tank in the hills of Tarzana since Thursday, forcing the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to declare it unusable, DWP officials said Monday. Although inspectors did not find structural cracks in the Corbin water tank near Mulholland and Greenbriar drives after the Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake, officials now speculate that the temblor or an aftershock damaged a drainage valve.

Underground gasoline tanks, long forgotten relics of some of the earliest service stations in the country, have recently slowed construction crews doing street work and landscaping on Main Street downtown. Late in May, workers ran across a 500-gallon fuel tank that had been sunk about eight feet under a sidewalk at Main Street and Olive Avenue 70 years ago or more, officials said.

A Superior Court judge Tuesday agreed with county and John Wayne Airport attorneys that owners of the Koll-Irvine Center Business Park do not have sufficient legal grounds to sue for the removal of fuel tanks at the airport. But Judge Ronald L. Bauer gave attorneys for the business park 15 days to file an amended complaint with more specific California case law and statutes to make their case. The attorneys for the business park are trying to prove that the tanks are a nuisance.

A Superior Court judge Tuesday refused to halt the operation of three jet fuel tanks at John Wayne Airport despite the potential danger of an airplane crash there, saying the shutdown would be too much of a burden on the county. Business owners in the Koll-Irvine Center Business Park hoped to stop the airport from operating the fuel tanks while a lawsuit they have filed against the county and airlines winds its way through the courts. But Superior Court Judge Ronald L.

The City Council will review a lawsuit to determine whether it should join the Koll-Irvine Center Property Owners Assn. in seeking to force the county to remove three fuel tanks at John Wayne Airport. The lawsuit, filed two weeks ago, was brought by business owners in the center who claim that the potential for an accident involving the tanks that could destroy their businesses and cause personal injury is much greater than county engineers have determined.

Gasoline that leaked from storage tanks at the city's two public golf courses has contaminated about 600 tons of earth and will cost up to $75,000 to clean up. The City Council approved the cleaning expenditures Tuesday after golf course officials said the fuel contamination had spread at the H.G. (Dad) Miller Golf Course in west Anaheim and at the Anaheim Hills Golf Course.

Bill and Kathleen Hall certainly have nothing against environmental regulations. After all, their Gardena business was built on federal and state rules that require the upgrading of underground fuel tanks to protect against leaks that contaminate subterranean water. "We saw there was a need," Kathleen Hall said, "and we invested heavily" seven years ago to start a company that installs tanks and treats polluted soil.

Checking oil and washing windshields went the way of the Model-T at most service stations a few years back. Now, gas stations themselves are vanishing at an alarming rate across much of the country, especially in small rural towns, leaving motorists with no place to fill up. "I feel lousy, a lot of people depended on me," said Les Cole, who ran Cusick's last gas station for 11 years until he pulled out his pumps and tanks in October.

The Orange County district attorney's office filed suit Tuesday against Exxon Corp., alleging that the oil company has failed to comply with a major pollution law enacted to prevent fuel leaks. Prosecutors allege in the suit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, that Exxon has violated a state law that requires companies to obtain permits and monitor underground fuel tanks for leaks. Eight Exxon stations in Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley and Garden Grove are involved, the suit says.

Unocal Corp. paid a $903,846 settlement to avoid civil prosecution for allegedly violating a major pollution law at more than half of its service stations in Orange County, prosecutors said. The Los Angeles-based oil company endangered public health and water supplies by failing to check for leaks and obtain necessary permits for underground gas tanks at 72 of its 143 stations in the county, Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi alleged. Deputy Dist. Atty.