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Regional Cleanup
The approach to restoration of the Charnock Sub-basin groundwater for use as drinking water involves cleanup of groundwater and soil at the sources of the pollution (mainly gas stations), and cleanup of the groundwater outside of the source areas ('regional cleanup').
In November 1999, Shell Oil Company began operating a groundwater extraction and treatment system on Tuller Avenue south of Venice Boulevard. This system is extracting and treating shallow and deep groundwater from wells on both the west side and east side of the 405 freeway along with wells on and adjacent to an operating Shell gas station. This system, which has a treatment capacity of approximately 300 gallons per minute, increased its operations to approximately 150 gallons per minute as of January 2002. EPA and the Los Angeles Regional Water Board ('Regional Board') have required periodic adjustments in the operation of this system in order to clean up the area around the Venice and Sepulveda intersection.
In December 2003, the City of Santa Monica and some of the companies responsible for the MTBE contamination of the Charnock Sub-Basin received court approval for a settlement under which the companies will fund construction and operation of a treatment plant at the City's Charnock Wellfield. This treatment plant will clean up residual regional MTBE contamination and insure that the City's water supply is safe. Because the treatment plant will provide a protective remedy, EPA does not plan to undertake additional remedy selection at the Site. The Regional Board will remain the lead agency to insure that all individual source site cleanups are properly completed. The California Department of Health Services
, in consultation with the Regional Board, will oversee the permitting, construction and operation of the treatment plant provided for in the settlement.
