Local News in Brief : Union Oil Agrees to Shut Tank Farm

Union Oil Co.’s San Pedro tank farm--which area residents have been trying to shut down since an oil tanker exploded nearby in 1976--will be dismantled within five years under an agreement approved Wednesday by the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners.

The relocation plan ends the long battle between the oil company and the residents, who say the 20-acre tank farm, which is between their neighborhood and the nearby Cabrillo Marina, poses a safety threat.

The tank farm, which can hold 2 million barrels of crude oil, serves as a way station for oil pumped from the Unocal tanker terminal to the company’s refinery in Wilmington.

Under the agreement, Union Oil will relocate the tanks by July, 1993, possibly to the Wilmington refinery. The company will then build a pipeline to its new tank farm.