Fuel Tank Replacements Keep Street Partly Shut

A portion of Etiwanda Avenue will remain closed for the next six months as aging fuel tanks are replaced at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire Station.

The block south of Devonshire Street has been closed since October, and the City Council voted Tuesday to extend the closure until Aug. 31 because the work is not finished.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency had mandated that older tanks be replaced with new double-lined vessels by December, a deadline the city missed. More than 120 tanks at 40 city facilities were affected, and the council approved spending $3.9 million on a no-bid basis to speed the work.

Sgt. Ron Kubitsky of the Devonshire Division said the work on his station’s tanks, scheduled to begin in December, has not yet begun.

Devonshire officers were issued credit cards and told to take their patrol cars to nearby gas stations to refuel, and Kubitsky said some officers have also been refueling at other city facilities.

Paul Bardon, the LAPD’s director of police transport, said the fuel tank replacement at 11 police stations was taking longer than expected because the tanks had to be individually designed to fit the specifications of each station.

So far, the upgrades have been completed at only two of the police stations, Foothill and Wilshire, Bardon said. The January gas bill from the affected police stations was about $89,000.