Sacramento DA sues California alleging underground tanks leaking under Capitol building
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The Sacramento County district attorney’s office has sued a state agency alleging that storage tanks are leaking hazardous substances under several downtown buildings, including the state Capitol.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court against the California Department of General Services, alleges the leakages are also happening in Oakland. It was filed jointly by Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.
The district attorneys filed the lawsuit “to protect public health and the environment from harm due to releases of hazardous substances from leaking Underground Storage Tanks, including harm to groundwater and surface waters and against harm from indoor air impacts,” the lawsuit stated.
A General Services spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
“(General Services) has an extensive history of underground storage tank violations in Sacramento County,” the lawsuit states, adding that penalties totaling tens of thousands of dollars started in 2008 and 2009.
Former Sacramento District Attorney Jan Scully in 2014 sued the state for similar issues and a judge issued an injunction, which General Services is now violating, the lawsuit alleges.
Many of the violations, listed in the suit, have to do with administrative tasks such as failing to file inspection reports, while others appear to be more serious, relating to the failure of equipment or the release of materials.
In January 2020 inspectors with Sacramento County’s Environmental Management Department found that the Department of General Services failed to install or maintain a “liquid-tight spill container” in the underground storage tanks under the Capitol, the lawsuit alleges. During a follow-up November 2022 inspection there, the county inspector found the fire extinguishers had not been serviced since May 2019.
Issues with a “liquid tight spill container” were also noted in 2020 under the General Services headquarters building at 1416 9th St., the lawsuit alleges.
Last year an inspection at the Legislative Office Building at 1020 N St. found hazardous materials such as acetylene had been moved there without a permit.
Some of the alleged issues related to equipment above ground.
A 2023 inspection of the California Department of Justice building at 4949 Broadway found “the diesel submersible turbine pump sump had approximately two gallons of diesel observed in it at the time of inspection. There was also a small amount of diesel fuel in the transition sump and there was a five gallon plastic bucket catching diesel fuel from the above ground pipe in the generator room,” the lawsuit alleged. The alarm system for a leak had been out of compliance “for an extended period of time.”
Last year an inspection at the 1021 O St., the Capitol annex, found an above-ground diesel tank without a county permit and also gas cylinders with compressed gas without a permit, the suit alleged.
The lawsuit also alleged that Alameda County issued a violation notice to General Services in November 2022 regarding similar uncorrected violations at a state building at 1515 Clay St. in downtown Oakland.
It’s not the first time Ho, who has been DA since 2023, has sued a government entity. Last year Ho filed a lawsuit against the city of Sacramento alleging in part that it is not issuing homeless people enough citations when their camps block sidewalks.
