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Unocal goes to extremes to remediat



Subject: Unocal goes to extremes to remediate two California petroleum  spills. 

The Oil and Gas Journal 

May 24, 1999 

Unocal goes to extremes to remediate two California petroleum spills. 


    When Unocal Corp. sold all its California holdings to Torch Energy
Advisors Inc. in 1995, it could
not include two properties in San Luis Obispo County, one of which involved
underground diluent leaks
that rank among the world's largest environmental problems. 

Estimates of the volume lost at Guadalupe oil field vary between 202,000
bbl and 476,000 bbl, making
the spill comparable to the Exxon Valdez, Burmah Agate, Corinthos, and Argo
Merchant tanker spills.
It is at least twice as large as the infamous blowout at Union Oil Co. of
California's Platform A in the
Santa Barbara Channel in 1969, which released 100,000 bbl and is often
touted as a key event leading
to the environmental movement. (Union Oil Co. of California was the
precursor of Unocal Corp.) 

Despite their size, Unocal's Guadalupe diluent leaks never garnered the
national publicity and attention
of any of the events mentioned, because it happened slowly over decades, is
mostly underground on
leased private land, and apparently posed no widespread, immediate threat
to human health or the
natural world. But the ante was increased when bad weather, erosion, and
migration sent the diluent into
the ocean in 1988, and contamination was measured in groundwater, although
not in sources used for
drinking. 

A second site in nearby Avila Beach, Calif., later became a problem for
Unocal, despite its smaller size.
In contrast to Guadalupe's diluent, the Avila spill consists of crude oil,
gasoline, and diesel fuel that
leaked under the downtown area and the beach over many years. Getting it
out meant intruding upon the
routine lives and infrastructure of a small town; razing commercial
buildings such as stores, a local bar
and yacht club, apartments, and houses and rebuilding it all. 

Unocal has gone to extreme measures to clean up the Guadalupe and Avila
Beach spills, using a variety
of techniques to remediate these environmentally sensitive areas. But, just
as the spills occurred over a
long period of time, cleanup is proving to be a long-term project. 

Cleanup 

A few months ago--and after years of litigation, hearings, debates,
emergency excavations, and
recovery--Unocal began an 18-month excavation in the town of Avila Beach
and is tackling a more
widespread contamination at the 2,700-acre Guadalupe Dunes area. 

The Guadalupe problem is massive in scope, and cleanup is expected to be
very expensive. It is
estimated that extracting or breaking down most of the contaminant will
take at least a decade. 

Although the cleanups pose difficult technical and regulatory challenges,
they may lead to new or more
efficient remediation methods. In fact, Unocal could end up with a
proprietary bacterial soup garnered
from an on-site "living laboratory" that has already increased the
efficiency of bioremediation by about
20% (see photo at right on p. 36). The not-so-secret ingredient is corn
steep, added to traditional
mixtures. 

Even if the cost of cleanup is excluded, this has been one of the most
expensive ordeals ever
encountered by an oil company for release of a petroleum substance.
Damages, penalties, and
government agency reimbursements have piled up. These include: a state
record penalty of $ 43.8
million for the Guadalupe Dunes contamination, under a settlement reached
in 1998; $ 18 million for
Avila Beach the same year (OGJ, July 27, 1998, Newsletter); and another $
1.5 million in 1994, to
settle criminal charges (OGJ, Mar. 21, 1994, Newsletter). 

"Forty-four million (dollars) is just the front door," said one state
official, who noted that the 1998
settlement does not preclude future litigation. 

In 1994, Unocal pledged an open-ended budget to clean up the spill (OGJ,
Mar. 14, 1994, p. 36). 

No one at Unocal is comfortable in releasing cost figures--partly because
work is driven by regulatory
agencies. But it's known that Unocal has so far spent about $ 70 million on
studies and emergency
cleanup at Guadalupe oil field alone. 

Unocal official Barry Lane says nobody knows the ultimate cost of cleanup,
but that insurance will help
defray costs. 

Unocal has also given a $ 1.3 million grant to California Polytechnic
Institute (Cal Poly) to establish the
living laboratory site at which to study enhanced bioremediation
techniques. And the company donated
$ 200,000 to the city of Guadalupe, Calif., and spent millions more
settling property claims at Avila,
which are confidential. 

Unocal intends to buy the entire 2,700-acre Guadalupe Dunes property from a
trust that includes foreign
owners who have held up the purchase because of lawsuits among themselves.
If Unocal finally buys, it
won't be selling it for profit but, instead, marking it with "conservation
easements" so that it can never be
developed. If a purchase proves impossible, Unocal will exchange some other
property for the same
purpose. 

These problems also present a litigation nightmare for Unocal, as the
company has confronted various
suits brought by state, regional, and local agencies and public groups such
as the Surfrider Foundation
and the Sierra Club. Some were settled by agreeing to damages and
penalties, but others continue to
this day. 

The company originally kept the leaks under wraps and denied it was
responsible, according to court
records. But after the diluent was noticed on a beach in 1988--Guadalupe
field's peak production
year--Unocal started a process of discovery that continues, and even widens
to other areas, still today 

The two spills 

Although pipeline leaks are the common thread in both locations, the two
spills couldn't be more
different. 

At the beachside town of Avila Beach, Unocal faces angry residents because
their beloved downtown is
being razed and rebuilt, displacing businesses and homes until at least
2000. In addition, some residents
are claiming that various health problems are tied to the pollution. 

Guadalupe Dunes, on the other hand, is a wild area on private property. It
is off-limits to the public but
part of an expansive National Natural Landmark system that includes rare
and endangered plants and
animals. 

Deer roam freely there, and workers have also seen bears and bobcats, along
with scores of smaller
creatures that are accustomed to the small band of workers at the site. 

Guadalupe Dunes 

Unocal and its Union Oil predecessor have operated in the Guadalupe Dunes
since 1951, when the
company acquired the field from Continental Oil Co., which had drilled the
first commercial well there in
1948 but shut it down the next year. The company used a kerosine-like
diluent from a nearby refinery at
Santa Maria, Calif., to thin the thick crude oil (8-10[degrees] gravity)
produced in the area and
transport it through 170 miles of pipeline. 

Located 15 miles south of the city of San Luis Obispo, the 2,700-acre
Guadalupe Dunes area lies within
the Nipomo Dunes system and is bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Santa
Maria River, dipping
slightly into Santa Barbara County (see map, p. 35). 

The diluent has leaked almost everywhere in the area. There are about 90
known plumes, and some are
visible at the surface (see photo at left, above). 

"(The Guadalupe remediation project) is an incredible task and probably the
most highly scrutinized
(environmental cleanup) site in the world," said Gonzalo Garcia, Unocal's
project manager for the
Guadalupe site. 

A survey of the dunes area found 14 habitats that include some rare and
endangered animals and 250
plant communities. 

Garcia is not an engineer but a self-described "environmental guy" who
started out as a roustabout, then
studied environmental sciences, and who views his job as a steward for the
land, plants, and animals. 

That's important, to make amends for what Garcia calls "public outrage"
over the leakage. But he is
equally adamant that "our whole team is committed," from the officers in
the corporate boardroom to the
field workers. 

Proof of that came in 1994, when Unocal pleaded "no contest" to three
criminal charges that it leaked
thousands of barrels of diluent and failed to report it. Unocal Vice-Pres.
John Imle Jr. came to the area
and faced the public, saying, "I personally...owe this community an apology
for what's happened. I
further want to state (that) we fully accept responsibility for that
diluent being there." 

Imle also vowed that Unocal would spend "whatever it takes" to clean up the
spill. 

That doesn't mean there hasn't been disputes over how to do it, however.
Unocal would rather use
more in situ bioremediation than excavation, on the grounds that it is less
destructive. But bioremediation
takes more time than the agencies and public have patience. 

"I call it the DNA approach--or Do Nothing Approach--which doesn't call for
any intervention," said
Dr. Raul Cuno of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, referring to in situ
bioremediation. 

Cuno, a recognized expert worldwide in microbiology, is working closely
under a Unocal grant at the
dunes' living laboratory, trying to find a "superbug." If they can pull it
off, public agencies just might allow
more bioremediation. 

"To dig up a site destroys the site," Garcia maintains. "There is no magic
cure today." 

So agencies, after scrutinizing, criticizing, and modifying Unocal's
cleanup plan, have finally agreed on a
variety of methods to be used. Not all of them are to Unocal's liking. 

They include: 

* Drilling vertical extraction wells. 

* Installing vacuum drop tubes, which draw vapor and liquids up and oxygen
down to enhance
biodegradation. 

* Excavating about 790,000 cu yd of of soil (426,000 cu yd of contaminated
soil and 364,000 cu yd of
overlying clean soil) from 17 sites. 

* Embedding steel sheetpile walls to 40-ft depths to prevent slides and
minimize surface area
disturbance during excavations, notably on the beach and near the Santa
Maria River. 

* Biosparging (introducing air into the subsurface to promote growth of
aerobic microorganisms). 

* Applying pump-and-treat technology (groundwater extraction and cleanup). 

* Using hot-water flooding to loosen any thick crude oil (to be used on a
trial basis at some sites). 

* Allowing natural attenuation (leting nature take its course, but only at
sites with less than 1,000 ppm of
diluent). 

There are 17 diluent plumes considered the most serious. These will be
excavated first, with work
expected to take up to 5 years. This will leave about 73 lesser plumes that
Unocal hopes can be abated
by natural means or with enhanced bioremediation. 

Unocal has already excavated 220,000 tons of sand at the beach area in 1994
as the result of an
emergency abatement order. It used thermal desorption, or baking the oil
off contaminated sand at
700[degrees] F. in large, revolving kilns. The desorption units used were
the largest in the U.S. at that
time. 

Problems continued to crop up, however, when the Santa Maria River changed
course during inclement
weather, prompting more emergency actions. From that experience, Unocal
knows the cleanup may
continue to bring surprises and anomalies. 

In any case, Garcia said he doesn't expect full cleanup "in my lifetime." 

Avita Beach 

The Avila Beach contamination is primarily from underground pipelines
carrying crude oil, gasoline, and
diesel fuel to the Unocal pier from an adjacent tank farm and fuel to the
storage area from tankers. In
operation since 1910, the terminal is only about 15 miles from the
Guadalupe Dunes spill at the northern
end of San Luis Bay. 

Five of ten pipelines were active until 1996, when terminal operations
ceased and Unocal filed a cleanup
and abandonment plan. Two years prior to that, Unocal started a major beach
excavation, removing
and cleaning 7,500 cu yd of sand over a 2-year period. 

Earlier this year, Unocal officials handed out earplugs to visitors and
residents as they pounded in a
2,700-ft sheetpile wall at the beach prior to excavating even more
contaminated soil. 

The difference between this spill and the Guadalupe leak is that Unocal
must raze 23 buildings
downtown, some of which are homes and apartments, in order to excavate
below them. 

The total spill volume is estimated at nearly 10,000 bbl and will take
about 18 months to clean up. The
project began in November and affects 9 acres of the 58-acre town.
Altogether, 400 residents will be
displaced. 

Overall, Unocal will excavate an estimated 100,000 cu yd of soil, or nearly
7,000 truckloads. 

As might be expected, the townspeople are angry at the contamination,
noise, and construction traffic,
and at being displaced-so much so that Unocal's Project Avila manager,
Denny Lamb, retired in
September, after a 35year career, with the comment: "This has been one of
the ugliest experiences I've
ever had." 

Lamb was replaced by Bill Sharrer, who has worked as a Unocal environmental
supervisor and holds a
degree in hydrology. 

"I can't think of any other situation like this," Sharrer said, referring
to contamination of downtown and
beach areas. Unocal had to acquire at least 30 permits from 10 governmental
agencies to do the work. 

To improve public relations, Unocal has set up a web site (http://www.
projectavila.com) that not only
gives updates on the project but helps residents apply for compensation. 

Unocal is using a number of techniques besides excavation at Avila Beach.
These include biosparging,
addition of soil nutrients to speed bacterial breakdown, vapor recovery,
and soil venting. 

October 1947 Guadalupe Dunes exploration begins with Sand Dune Oil Co. 

1948 Guadalupe oil purchased by Continental Oil Co., which drills first
commercial well but shuts it
down the next year 

1951 Union Oil Co. of California (later renamed Unocal Corp.) acquires
field; produces it until 1990. 

1955-1990 Unocal uses diluent to thin and transport the heavy crude. 

1988 Peak production at 4,500 b/d from 215 wells. 

January 1988 Diluent first seen in beach sands and surf at Guadalupe Dunes;
odor complaints lead
Unocal to shut down 147 wells. 

January 1989 During a construction project, old leaks of crude oil,
gasoline, and diesel fuel found in
downtown Avila Beach from a pipeline built in the 1920s. Unocal drills 26
vapor recovery wells. 

January 1990 Plume observed at beach near Santa Maria River area. Unocal
suspends production in
February and discontinues use of diluent, erects bentonite wall in March
(800 ft long by 18 ft deep by 4
ft wide), and installs 15 wells on landward side to extract diluent. 

November 1991 PVC wall 275 ft long and 6 ft wide installed to prevent
migration to river/lagoon. 

1992 Unocal buys some contaminated private property at Avila Beach for $
500,000. 

July 1992 Former Unocal employee informs California Department of Fish and
Game (F&G) that he
believes the company has known about the diluent leaks for years but kept
them secret; F&G uses
search warrant to initiate 8-hr raid on Unocal's office and seizes 25 boxes
of files. 

August 1992 Old pipeline above Avila Beach bursts, spilling 150 bbl onto
the beach. 

March 1993 Investigation ordered by California Regional Water Quality
Control Board, and F&G finds
more diluent contamination in other parts of the Guadalupe Dunes field inland. 

June 1993 F&G seizes another 67 boxes of files. 

July 1993 F&G reports at least 112 crude oil and diluent spills have
occurred in Gaudalupe field since
1984, but only 16 were reported. San Luis Obispo District Attorney's office
files 28 criminal charges
against Unocal and six of its employees. 

1992-1994 Beach excavation and bentonite wall replaced with high-density
polyethylene (HDPE)
barrier. 

March 1994 Unocal pleads "no contest" to three criminal charges and agrees
to a $ 1.5 million
settlement. State Attorney General sues Unocal. 

Jan.-Apr. 1994 Unocal excavates beach and installs HDPE wall. 

February 1995 Santa Maria River changes course toward plume; steel
sheetpile walls installed in
December 1995 and October 1996. 

August 1995 Unocal announces plan to sell all California holdings to Torch
Energy Advisors Inc. for $
500 million but retains lease of Guadalupe field and cannot sell it until
clean-up is complete. 

November 1995 LeRoy Well #2 exposed by river; Unocal excavates 2,840 cu yd
of contaminated
sand. 

October 1998 Sheetpile wall installed to protect HDPE wall. 

July 1998 State Attorney General announces a $ 43.8 million settlement with
Unocal for contamination.
State regulators order study of diluent contamination in other oil fields. 

August 1998 State approves $ 18 million Avila Beach plan to extract nearly
10,000 bbl of crude oil and
fuel, entailing excavatihg beach and razing buildings downtown. 

November 1998 Avila Beach buildings torn down, signaling start of full
cleanup. 

January 1999 Sheetpile wall started on beach at Avila in preparation for
huge excavation project
expected to take 18 months. 

June 1999 Work was to begin in March on comprehensive clean-up plan over
the entire Guadalupe
Dunes, beginning with the most serious contamination at the beach. But
detection of low levels of PCBs
(polychlorinated biphenyls) and the breeding season for red-legged frogs
has delayed work until June at
the earliest. 

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