Report to Mayor and City Council
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Discussion
SUBJECT:
Title
UPDATE ON STATUS OF CAROUSEL TRACT SEWER PIPE INVESTIGATION
Body
I. SUMMARY
Carson has a long history in dealing with the environmental impacts of the petroleum industry. Residents of the Carousel Tract have been particularly impacted by soil contamination and other environmental issues, where petroleum was stored in large tanks that saturated the soil. The majority of the homes in the Carousel Tract were constructed from 1967-1969 with limited soil clean up. The residents brought to the City's attention major health issues over a decade ago. Through this process, the City became aware of the threat of groundwater contamination as well. As a result, the City has been both assisting the residents and working closely with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (Board) with this major environmental clean-up project.
During the recent cleanup process, some homeowners found that their sewer pipes had been corroded and believed that this corrosion might be a result of the soil contamination around their homes. A number of residents have had to replace sewer pipes, at a cost ranging between $15,000 and $20,000 per home.
Consequently, the City hired a forensic engineer - HG Cornerstone - to investigate whether there is a link between the oil impacted soils and the corrosion of the sewer pipes. The engineer has produced an Interim Engineering Observations & Assessment Report (Interim Report). This Interim Report indicates that a causal connection exists and that more investigation is warranted to finalize the report.
Shell Oil and the City have funded the study to date and to date it has cost approximately $100,000 to produce this Phase I Interim Report. The costs to complete Phase II of the study are estimated at $200,000. The City is currently running a $8 million budget deficit and does not have sufficient funds to complete the study. Council ...
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