The clock is ticking for the only gas station on Alameda’s Bay Farm Island.

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Come Nov. 30, the Unocal 76 station on Mecartney Road near its intersection with Island Drive at Harbor Bay Landing shopping mall’s southwest corner will join other Bay Farm retailers that have bitten the dust in recent years, like the CVS (formerly Long’s) drug store across the parking lot.

Blame the shutdown of Bay Farm’s only fuel stop on the estimated $2 million price tag to remove the station’s old single-walled underground gas storage tank and replace it with a state-mandated double-walled one — an environmental upgrade. That’s just too high for station owner Simon Kim.

When Kim was first notified several years ago that he needed a double-walled tank, the cost was $1 million. He says at the time he thought he could handle that.

“But the COVID (pandemic) hit, so prices started to rise up. So the average cost is about $2 million,” says Kim.

Kim also says he faces a potential fine of up to $20,000 a day if the tank is not replaced by Dec. 31. Adding to the headache for the independent operator, who doesn’t own the land his station sits on, is that he couldn’t make the decision to upgrade on his own.

“So I cannot even control my situation because the landlord has to approve it and then 76 has to approve it,” says Kim.

So after 41 years Kim, 70, has decided to pack it in. A native of Seoul, South Korea, Kim emigrated to the United States in 1982 and began working at his uncle’s five gas stations throughout the East Bay, learning the trade. In 1984, he took over one of them — the then-Mobil station at the Bay Farm shopping center. Since then it’s also flown the BP flag before eventually becoming a Unocal 76 station.

In addition to selling gas, Kim has also emphasized routine maintenance for his customers, especially the elderly. He says he’s concerned about where they’ll go in the future.

“They need kind of little, small touches,” such as checking the oil and tire pressure, he said. “I’m really sorry for the elderly persons, my dear customers.”

Besides the tank replacement issue, Kim says another threat to his business is that today’s cars don’t break as much and have far more warning systems indicating when a repair needs to be made.

“Every time tire pressure gets lower, a light comes on. And oil changes too. Twenty years ago we didn’t have those kind of fancy monitoring systems,” says Kim.

The soon-to-be-retired Kim plans to take a well deserved vacation back to South Korea after closing up shop to check in with friends and relatives he hasn’t seen in over 25 years — a long-overdue trip his wife says he’s been “dragging his feet on.”

Over the years Kim’s Unocal 76 has had its share of memorable moments. Perhaps the most noteworthy was when the station sold a $93 million winning California lottery ticket in 2016 to then-executive assistant Judy Taylor on a “quick pick” ticket.

Kim says Taylor came in after filling up and had a couple of bucks in change. Not a regular lottery player, she decided to buy a quick pick ticket. The rest is history. Retailers who sell tickets also get a share of the winnings, and Kim’s take was $465,000. Where Taylor is now is anyone’s guess. She opted for the lump-sum payout and went home with a cool $52 million after taxes.

Kim celebrated the win by handing out free $1 quick pick tickets to his customers. As often happens with big-win lottery ticket purchase outlets, Kim’s Unocal developed a reputation as being “lucky.”

Bay Farm resident Rob Sloan, a retired U.S. and world history high school teacher, says he’s been coming to the station since 1989 and that the closure will be rough. He says he drops in every time he needs a fill-up and that the thought of driving over the bridge to the next-nearest station on Alameda’s main island is not one he wants to contemplate at the moment.

Sloan says he’ll miss not just the service at Bay Farm Island’s only gas station but other aspects of the fill-up experience — like the “joy of talking to him (Kim) about the Lunar New Year,” conversations sparked by calendars Kim provided in past years.

“It’s part of my routine,” says Sloan. “When you separate from a job or situation it’s always going to be bittersweet.”

Ever the history teacher, Sloan summed up his feelings about his local gas station going the way of the woolly mammoth thusly: “As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, ‘There’s nothing permanent except change.’ ”

Paul Kilduff is a San Francisco-based writer who also draws cartoons. He can be reached at [email protected].