United States Environmental Protection Agency
Region IX
POLLUTION REPORT

Subject: 

Greka's contractor completed the gross decontamination of the creek.  The gross decontamination was conducted using manual labor and hand crews.  Due to high potential for damaged to the creek, heavy equipment was not used.  The bulk oil and contaminated soil was shoveled into garbage bags and placed into roll-off-bins.  Greka's contractor is currently sparging the creek with hot water to removed oil bound up in the sediments or buried.  Fresh water is being used.  The contaminated water is being collected into vacuum trucks and transferred to on-site storage in portable tanks.

Greka completed the cleanup of the tank farm.  The pipe that allowed the oil to migrated from the secondary containment was welded shut under direction of the OSC and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) IC.  Greka removed the oil and contaminated soil from the pad area below the tank farm.  Greka's contractor completed the Permit Required Confined Space Entry under the County Road Yard building.

On January 17, 2008, the START and the Pacific Strike Team conducted air sampling inside the the road yard building for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs).  The data will be provided to the County Health Officer for to determine if the building can be reoccupied.

On January 15, 2008, OSC Wise, Oil Inspector Peter Riech and START attended the Santa Barbara Co. Supervisors meeting on Greka.  OSC Wise sat on the agency panel briefing the supervisors.  The supervisors approved recommendation provided by the County agencies to all for stricter regulation of Greka and other problem businesses.

On January 18, 2008, Congresswoman  Capps, Supervisor Chairman Carbajal were on-site with a number of high ranking County officials and the medial for a briefing and a tour.

OSC Wise increased the FPN to $100,000.

Greka's contractor will continue to sparge the creek until deemed clean by the Unified Command.  Upon completetion of the sparging Greka's consultant will conduct soil sampling to determine if the creek and other oil impacted areas are clean.  The action level shall be 1,000 ppm Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons and the industrial PRG for any specific VOCs, SVOCs or heavy metals.

1.  Complete sparging of the creek.
2.  Sample creek, pad, County Road Yard, Firestone Winery areas and any other contaminated areas.
3.  Quantify the oil content of all roll-off-bins and bulk liquid storage tanks.
4.  Profile and disposed of the contents of all bins.
5.  Oil and Water in bulk liquid storage tanks will be processed by Greka after the Fire Department has released their stop work order.

1.  Equipment maintenance of Greka's vacuum trucks continues to be a problem.  Greka's trucks scrubbers are substandard and have resulted in several releases of VOCs to the environment.
2.  Greka has had problems paying their contractor.  Their contractor, ACTI, is meeting with Greka's controller tomorrow to work out payment issues.  Any failure of Greka to pay their contractor will result in the immediate Federal takeover of the cleanup.  Greka's inability to get local resources themselves has resulted several work stoppages.
3.  The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department is currently investigating Greka's claim of vandalism.