Santa Monica has pulled four underground aviation fuel tanks out of the ground at Santa Monica Airport, completing a state-mandated cleanup that moves the site one step closer to its scheduled closure.

City Manager Oliver C. Chi announced the removal Thursday, Sept. 10, in his weekly newsletter. The city's Architecture Services Division and Airport Team handled the project, which included extracting the tanks and remediating surrounding soil.

The tanks sat at 3000 31st St. in the Atlantic Aviation operating area. Three held 12,000 gallons of aviation fuel each. The fourth held 500 gallons. All four were installed in the mid-1980s.

Testing found the nearly 40-year-old system no longer met California Health and Safety Code requirements. In April 2025, the State Water Resources Control Board ruled the tanks had to be upgraded to current standards or permanently closed.

City officials evaluated retrofitting but concluded that upgrading tanks that old could compromise their structural integrity, according to Chi's newsletter. They chose full decommissioning and removal instead of abandoning the tanks in place.

The work required a closure permit from the Santa Monica Fire Department before crews could shut down the system, pull the tanks and clean up the soil around them.

Fleming Environmental Inc. served as the contractor. The City Council approved a $400,000 contract modification that brought Fleming's total deal to $931,000 over five years, funded from the Airport Fund, according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.

Chi said in his newsletter that retiring legacy aviation infrastructure ahead of the airport's closure means fewer problems to resolve later. The airport is set to close Dec. 31, 2028, after Santa Monica voters approved Measure LC, which prohibits new development on the land except for parks, open space and public recreation.

A statewide deadline under Senate Bill 445 required all single-walled underground storage tanks to be permanently closed by Dec. 31, 2025. Operators that missed the cutoff face civil penalties of $500 to $5,000 per tank per day, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.