Local News in Brief : Cypress : Further Testing Due on Site of Old Tank Farm

State and county health officials will do more testing near the site of a Texaco gasoline storage facility, including sampling two domestic water wells located about half a mile away, to determine the extent of soil and groundwater contamination, officials said Monday.

The problem surfaced in an environmental impact report prepared for Cypress Homes Inc., which acquired the property this year and has proposed building a large housing project on the 144-acre site, senior city planner Holly Hamlin said.

According to the report, low levels of toxic petroleum waste, including hydrocarbons and benzene, were found in half of 34 monitoring wells dug at the site. The report said there is no evidence that contaminants have spread beyond the tank farm or threaten other water wells.

Texaco already has submitted preliminary plans to remove contaminated groundwater and excavate more than 40,000 tons of contaminated soil from the Moody Street site.

Information on the environmental impact report and the cleanup plan will be presented at a 7 p.m. community meeting today in the Recreation Center, 5700 Orange Ave. The City Council will hold a public hearing Dec. 14 and vote on the EIR and cleanup plans for the site.

The development would add more than 800 single-family housing units and a six-acre community park. If approved, construction would begin in 1989, Hamlin said.

The tank farm was used for nearly 60 years to store crude and fuel oil. Only three of the original 54 tanks remain at the site.