Purity Oil Sales, Fresno CA
Posted by: 
fresgo
N 36° 41.236 W 119° 44.746
11S E 254668 N 4063694
3265 S MAPLE AVE
MALAGA, CA 93726
Waymark Code: WMF7KD
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 09/05/2012
Views: 6
Purity Oil Sales was a used oil reprocessing facility in operation from 1934 until 1974. The site is currently owned by the State of California and under active remediation. The seven-acre site was divided into a processing facility on its east side and storage sumps and ponds on the west side. After oil was processed it was moved into sumps and or buried in adjoining ponds. In the 1960s area neighbors began to report that oil was seeping onto adjacent properties. In 1973 the company responsible for the waste was ordered to begin clean up operations. In 1982 the site was placed on the National Priorities List. Since then the property has been cleared of all structures and the ponds have been cleaned up and the surface "leveled," however the below ground contamination has remained. The Fresno Sole Source Aquifer which provides fresh drinking water is located just 30 feet below the polluted flume. In 2001, residents of the nearby Tall Trees Mobile Trailer Park were moved to new permanent housing in the community of Malaga.
Ongoing cleanup is taking two forms one Groundwater and Tank Remediation and the other is Soil Remediation. Chevron Environmental Management Company and Stantec Consulting are the two firms leading the project activities.
Clean up activities at the site have including pumping and treatment of groundwater and removal and replacement of soil to a depth of 15 feet, the level at which the aquifer was one estimated to be. Efforts to finish the job have gone extremely slow. The water table and aquifer have been receding at a high rate which has required prolonged attention. The goal of the project had been to restore the ground water supply to a level that meets federal drinking water standards, but the falling water had not allowed for significant progress. The EPA's preferred alternative is to continue monitoring the natural processes that are currently occurring and restart active groundwater remediation at a time when the water table rises. According to the EPA current conditions at the site are stable for the time being. The EPA is currently working (as of 2012) with local stakeholders to continue remediation.