El Toro Underground Storage Tanks

El Toro Underground Storage Tanks 

The Orange County Health Care Agency and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board required the closure of five Underground Storage Tanks (USTs) at the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Irvine, CA. Originally constructed in 1953, these five USTs held a whopping 591,426 gallons of jet propulsion fuel and needed to be decommissioned by filling the tanks with an inert solid material in order to achieve regulatory closure concurrence.

Each of these USTs measured 88 feet wide and 13 feet high. Due to their size, and their unique placement underground, the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro needed a solution that would be strong enough to reinforce the ground above, while providing little to no additional environmental impact. To add to an already challenging job, there were only ten days before the cutoff date to finish the project to avoid interruption to the breeding season of threatened species California Gnat Catcher.

Cell-Crete’s Engineered Fill team rose to the challenge and finished installation of the foamed concrete in just six days. This enabled the contractor, Rore, Inc., to finish the grading and hydroseeding of the area without incurring liquidated damages.

“We chose Cell-Crete because they are the only installer of cellular concrete that could complete the job to the incredibly tight schedule — notably, their ability to produce more than 3,000 cubic yards of cellular concrete per day,” said Steve Siefert of Rore, Inc.

“Because of their seamless installation in six days, we had the opportunity to complete our responsibilities on schedule,” he finished.

The tanks were filled using class II cellular concrete material, the material also complies with the strict environmental standards set by the Orange County Health Care Agency. With the tanks safely decommissioned, the city will turn the site into the Orange County Great Park.