Redwood City Gas Station Owners Ordered to Pay $300K for Tank Leaks

By Bay City News Service:

The owners of a Redwood City gas station and auto service center were ordered this week to pay $300,000 in civil penalties in a case over leaks in underground tanks, San Mateo County prosecutors said.

The leaks were discovered in 1992 when three underground tanks capable of holding 5,000, 7,500 and 10,000 gallons of fuel were removed from the property at 590 Canyon Road, according to the district attorney’s office.

County Environmental Health Services staff saw holes in two of the tanks and fuel floating in the groundwater that accumulated in the holes left by the excavation, prosecutors said.

The property’s owners tested the groundwater and found gasoline and ether, prosecutors said.

Environmental services staff instructed the owners to mitigate the contamination, but San Mateo County prosecutors filed a civil complaint in 2013 alleging that the property owners had not completed an appropriate survey, had not taken the necessary corrective actions, had not informed environmental services of ongoing groundwater monitoring and had not submitted a work plan.

The owners are now in compliance and testing just prior to Tuesday’s judgment showed that there is no threat to human health or the environment, according to the district attorney’s office.

The 590 Canyon Road property houses both the Oak Knoll Service Station and Canyon Gas and Propane.

It has been owned since 1981 by Akbar Nazemian, Abbas Ali Nazemi, Mohammed Hossein Nazemi, Golnaz Agah Nazemi, Ali Asghar Nazemian and Shiran Agah Nazemian.