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Minutes - San Leandro City Council Meeting - January 4, 1993 Page - 7 - NEW BUSINESS (continued) Mike Bakaldin said there appears to be some concern that the Resolutions and Ordinance are new regulations. He said this process is similar to that used with the Haz Mat Program. He said the City did not start the Haz Mat Program until it had adopted State and Federal laws which were already in existence and is not adopting any new laws now. He said these actions give the City the ability to act as a go- between for the property owner and the State. He said he will take the property owners through the process so they can get a sign-off on their properties after contamination is cleared up. He said, in many cases, once an underground tank is removed the owners find they have a problem; and 50% of the time it can be dealt with on the same day. He said, currently, when there is a problem, the City must turn it over to the County, which has a major backlog and cannot respond immediately. He said these Resolutions and Ordinance will give the City the authority to proceed. He said the first Resolution acknowledges that there are 200 known contaminated sites and that the County has already started on 98 of those sites and will follow them through to completion. He said the City will handle the remaining sites and help the property owners through the process. He said the second Resolution is an Agreement with the Regional Water Quality Control Board which makes the City the official agent for the Board with authority to recommend case closures. He said probably 25% of the sites do not belong on the list, and this will allow the City to remove them so that the property owners may proceed. He said the Ordinance strengthens the City's ability to do the work it has to do and clarifies that the City has the authority to order a study if property appears to contain contamination. John Sullivan, 17760 Sweet Briar Place, Castro 'Valley, said he feels these measures will bring hazardous materials under local control , but he said there are a few inadequacies. He spoke regarding third-party liability and discussed a case where oil from a gas station had leaked onto the adjacent apartment property. He said the apartment property owners talked to the State Water Control Board and were told to get together with the oil company and let the oil company arrange for testing, or to arrange for testing on their own. He said the property owner agreed to have the oil company do the drilling, but the oil company would not acknowledge responsibility for clean up. He said there is no legal mechanism that can be employed to force the responsible property owner, in this case the gas company, to do the work. He said this is a gross inequity and should be addressed. Mr. Bakaldin agreed there is an issue of third-party liability. He said, in general , the third party must pursue the matter. He said first a case has to be made that the contamination is actually coming from an adjacent property and, if that is so, the case may need to go to court.