Groundwater contamination concerns delaying Farmer Boys

By: QUINN EASTMAN - Staff Writer | Monday, September 19, 2005 8:56 PM PDT ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- Construction of Escondido's next Farmer Boys restaurant on East Valley Parkway is on hold because of groundwater contamination concerns at the former gas station site.

It's fairly common for underground gasoline storage tanks to leave behind methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), a gasoline additive with a recognizable turpentine odor. A 1997 University of California Davis study compiled a list of over 3,000 sites of detected leaks of MTBE into groundwater across the state.

But in this case a bank, rather than health officials, became nervous and held up construction.

"We would have been open now," said Don Tucker, Farmer Boys' director of franchising in Riverside, on Monday. "As soon as we satisfy the concerns of the lender, I think we'll be back on track."

He declined to identify the commercial bank providing a loan for the project. Construction of the restaurant, Escondido's and San Diego County's second, started in November 2004.

The former operator of a gas station at East Valley Parkway and Harding Street, Conoco Phillips, removed gas tanks from the property in 1999, according to county Department of Environmental Health records.

The Department ordered water monitoring wells to be set up around the site, which is in front of Ralph's supermarket. However, a case was not opened on the property until March 2005, said Mark McPherson, chief of the department's Land and Water Quality division.

Water monitoring detected a relatively high level of MTBE in the groundwater, although soil tests initially found no contamination, he said.

The level under the East Valley property is about 2,000 parts per billion, according to McPherson. In comparison, the safety limit set by the state Department of Health Services is 13 parts per billion and people can smell about 5 parts per billion.

The contaminated groundwater is not near a source of drinking water, he said.

County officials said they would be more concerned if the planned use for the property included a basement or an underground garage.

They had ordered a "soil vapor" study to check if the MTBE in the soil was seeping upwards into the air. The results were negative.

"We had decided there was no remedial action required," McPherson said. "The plume isn't going anywhere, and the groundwater is 15 feet down. If it was going to be a health and safety issue, we'd make sure they'd take care of it."

MTBE was used extensively in the 1990s to make gasoline burn more cleanly. It was banned from California's gasoline at beginning of 2004.

Contact staff writer Quinn Eastman at (760) 740-5412 or qeastman@nctimes.com.