The state has fined a Marysville property owner $250,000 for failing to clean up petroleum hydrocarbons that are polluting the groundwater at a gas station.
The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board issued the administrative civil liability order for Robert L. French and Stockton Marketing Inc. for neglecting to investigate and clean up an unauthorized release of petroleum hydrocarbons from the underground storage tanks at Circle A Gas Station on East 22nd Street in Marysville.
The water board's executive officer issued a cleanup and abatement order to French, who owns the property, and the now-defunct company, which was operating the gas station back in 2006, according to a news release by the water board.
The petroleum hydrocarbons' release was first reported in July 1997.
French was originally fined $50,000 for failing to comply with the order, but the board voted unanimously to increase the liability order to $250,000 after evidence at a Sept. 11 hearing revealed that the site continues to threaten a municipal drinking water well, the release states.
The fact that the parties have failed to clean up the problem for more than a decade also factored into the fine being increased.
Call The Bee's Niesha Lofing, (916) 321-1270.
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