Residents of the Bridgeport neighborhood in Seal Beach have previously warned those living along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline that they may have a long wait before British Petroluem (BP) cleans up its oily mess. The Orange Countians know because they have been fighting BP for years over contamination from a company-owned Arco gas station.
And to drive that message home even more, the Bridgeport residents will be protesting against BP on Saturday.
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Jaimee Lynn Fletcher has the scoop in the Orange County Register.
The peaceful demonstration is scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday in front of the Arco station on Pacific
Coast Highway and 5th Street, where an old gas leak that has caused contaminated soil vapors to
infiltrate the neighborhood, residents claim.
City officials received a notice from residents on Friday saying they
plan to picket outside the gas station from 10 a.m. to noon.
The gas leak
was discovered in 1986 and Arco officials have been trying to clean it up ever since.
The vapors were discovered in January 2009, and four homes believed to be heavily contaminated were evacuated in March. Residents were later told they could move back in after Arco and county health officials gave the homes the all-clear.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.