Point Reyes Light- October 29, 1998
Half of coast's gas stations to close
With less than two months remaining until state and federal regulations require gas stations to stop using their old underground tanks, it appears gasoline is going to be even harder to find on the West Marin coast.
Under a US Environmental Protection Agency mandate, gas stations must install rustproof, double-walled tanks with spill protection devices by Dec. 22. State law prohibits oil companies from making deliveries to stations that do not meet the deadline.
The regulations were imposed in 1988 after evidence showed that corroded underground gas tanks were the largest contributor to groundwater pollution, but as of three months ago, only about half the tanks in California met the new standards, said Robert Miller, a State Water Resources Control Board spokesman.
In West Marin the compliance rate is even lower, with only Greenbridge Gas & Auto in Point Reyes Station scheduled to replace its underground tanks by the December deadline.
The owners of both the Bolinas Garage and Drake Highway Garage in Inverness said this week they will not have new tanks installed in time to continue selling gas when the restrictions on gasoline deliveries begin.
But should two more gas stations be forced out of the gasoline business by the new law, fuel pumps will have virtually vanished from West Marin. Residents of Stinson Beach, Tomales, and the San Geronimo Valley have already seen their stations disappear.
The Olema Ranch Campground, which could become the first gas station on Highway 1 north of Tam Junction, has an above-ground gas tank that is not affected by the EPA regulations.
Drake Highway Garage owner Lee Richardson told The Light this week that he will have the old tanks removed from the ground, but the decision to install new ones depends on whether any gasoline contamination is found in the soil and whether he can secure a loan to finance new tanks.
Bolinas Garage operator Daran Moghadam said this week a contractor has estimated it will cost him $127,000 to upgrade his facilities. But Moghadam cannot make improvements until a Dec. 9 county hearing on his alleged multiple violations of land-use and zoning codes.
"I've been working on this for four years," said Moghadam, who has operated Bolinas Garage since 1993 and faces the added cost of cleaning contaminated soil.
Typically, independent gas stations in rural areas have been the slowest to meet the new regulations, said Dennis DeCota, the executive director of the California Service Station and Auto Repair Association in Novato.
"The independent sector has been very slow dealing with this mandate while the big oil companies have used it to their advantage," he said. "Unfortunately in the rural areas, most of all the facilities are independently owned and operated."
While independent gas station owners may not have the financial backing of major oil companies to pay for the improvements, DeCota noted that a variety of packages were made available to them, like federal and state low-interest loans or contracts from fuel distributors.
Drake Highway owner Richardson, however, complained that while there is a state bureaucracy to make loans, the state has run out of money to lend.
The owner of Greenbridge Gas & Auto, Mark Reano, concedes he might not have had the wherewithal to complete the station's renovations if he hadn't been working in the underground tank replacement business himself for the last 12 years.
Reano said upgrading tanks and installing new pumps will cost him about $180,000, which will be financed with a low-interest loan from his fuel distributor, Norcal. "One way or another, we're going to get these tanks underground, get the pumps operating, and supply Point Reyes with gas," he said.
Despite gas station owners' complaints about the difficulty of getting government loans or finding private banks willing to lend them money, DeCota noted stations have had almost 10 years to prepare for the new law.
"People have been frustrated by the bureaucracy," he conceded. "The problem is, it's your business. They need to make the decision to retail petroleum or go out of business."
One way to avoid the cost of replacing underground tanks is to install above-ground tanks, suggested Greg Mobley, an inspector with the county Waste Management Office, which is supervising Marin's tank-replacement program.
Mobley added that any inconvenience caused by the imminent shortage of gas stations will be outweighed by the assurance of clean groundwater. "I think it is safer for the environment to have the new rules and regulations," he said.
Richardson, however, said a Lawrence Livermore Lab study found that the best way to deal with contaminated soil is to leave it alone - unless it is within 125 feet of a well. Natural enzymes in the soil will break down gasoline molecules, Richardson said, noting he has already augmented such enzymes around his gas tanks.