Clean up of soil at Zephyr Cove begins, more samples taken
With contaminated soil and groundwater found at the site of the fuel leak at Zephyr Cove Resort, more testing has been ordered.
More than 3 cubic yards of contaminated soil constitutes a reportable quantity, explained Cheva Heck with the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service owns the land on the South Shore where the leak was first reported in June.
Soil samples will be taken until one comes back clean. That gives officials the ability to determine how far the unleaded gasoline seeped to.
No drinking water has been threatened by the leak, nor has Lake Tahoe been affected. However, groundwater has tested positive for petroleum.
As a precautionary measure the tanks holding the fuel were pumped out today.
Aramark, which leases the property from the Forest Service, is looking at changing its fuel operations. Those plans would have to meet local, state and federal requirements.
Remediation plans will begin before the scope of the leak is known. Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and Aramark are working those out.
The leak was discovered during the replacement of fuel pumps to two tanks that are a part of the underground storage tank system.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
How long has aramark been running zephyr cove? Like 8 years or so and they did not know they had a faulty fuel pump and containment system. Doesn’t the Forest Service do hazadous materials inspections?
This is pretty outrageous and just as bad as the woman who extended her pier and probably worse. I hope the TRPA is going to weigh in on this one and fine them.
Underground storage tanks are actually regulated (on the NV side) by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and yes, they do and did inspect them. The automatic leak detection on the tanks only detects leaks above a certain level.