N.M. County Approves Fracking Ban

By: Nathan Lamb

Citing a desire to protect local water supplies, Mora, New Mexico, has become the first county in the United States to ban fracking, according to this story from the L.A. Times.

Energy companies use "fracking"—hydraulic fracturing—to extract hard-to-reach oil and gas deposits from the ground. The process involves using a pressurized cocktail of water, sand and chemicals to fracture underground rock. Federal law doesn't require companies to disclose what chemicals are used; they are considered trade secrets. This has spurred water quality concerns in communities across the country.

While fracking has proved lucrative to landowners who lease mining rights, a number of communities are looking to ban or slow the spread of fracking wells. Pittsburgh was the first, in 2010, and more than a dozen east coast cities have followed suit.

The Mora ordinance that bans fracking cites the county's authority to regulate commercial activity.

Fracking is not regulated in California, where several cities are considering bans or moratoriums.

Culver City, which includes part of the 1,000-acre Inglewood Oil Field, is considering a proposed six-year moratorium, while the long-term air and water impacts of fracking are studied.

The California Department of Conservation is also finalizing statewide regulations for fracking.

The Environmental Protection Agency's study of the impacts of fracking on drinking water sources is slated for release in 2014.

City Waiting on Water-Supply Fix

By: Nathan Lamb

Residents of a southern California city may have had drinking water contaminated by a nearby munitions complex, according to this story from the Los Angeles Times.

Multiple city wells have been shut down in the City of Rialto, which is importing drinking water until widespread groundwater contamination is fixed.

The wells are tainted primarily with perchlorate, a persistent contaminant that can cause thyroid problems, especially with pregnant women and children.

A 2012 study by the California Department of Public Health indicated that drinking water supplied to Rial residents may have contained elevated levels of perchlorate from 1979 to 1997. The perchlorate has been traced back to production of ammunition, rocket fuel and fireworks at an industrial complex.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently reached binding agreements with several companies that will foot the bill for cleanup. The full scope of the problem is still being determined, but current estimates have the cleanup costing at least $140 million and taking 30 years or more.

According to the EPA website, perchlorate sometimes occurs naturally and is highly soluble in water. Human exposure is typically through contaminated drinking water, and large doses of perchlorate can cause irritation, coughing, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

Rialto is located approximately 50 miles east of Los Angeles.

Study Highlights California Groundwater Contaminants

By: Nathan Lamb

Groundwater from the southern California desert has higher-than-average levels of naturally occurring contaminants, according to this story from the Desert Sun newspaper.

A recently released study from the U.S. Geological survey found contaminants in 42 percent of aquifers from the Coachella Valley, which is roughly 100 miles west of Los Angeles. The study found high levels of arsenic, boron, fluoride, molybdenum and strontium—all of which have been linked to adverse health impacts by the Environmental Protection Agency. The study did not evaluate samples from water utilities, which are subject to health regulations and often treat groundwater to remove contaminants.

A spokesperson from the Coachella Valley Water District stated their treated drinking water is in full compliance with health regulations, saying they average 18,000 quality tests annually. And Miranda Fram of the USGS groundwater monitoring program explained that "water delivered to [residents] meets water-quality standards.”

The U.S. Geological survey was billed as the most extensive evaluation of desert groundwater to-date, with the goal of getting a comprehensive picture on the issue. The study also evaluated acquirers in the Owens, Indian Wells and Antelope Valleys, along with the Mojave area and Colorado River basin.

Across the desert, contaminants were found in 35 percent of groundwater tapped by public drinking supplies, whereas the average ranges from 10-25 percent across most of the state. The report suggested that water typically stays underground longer in the desert, giving it more time to mix with contaminants.

EPA removing city water contaminants in Barstow, Calif.

By: Nathan Lamb


Federal officials are removing 1,100 tons of contaminated soil that sparked a water emergency at a southern Californian city, according to this article.

The City of Barstow was in a state of emergency with a temporary water ban in November of 2010, after perchlorate was found in the municipal water system. Residents were required to use bottled water until the system was flushed.

Perchlorate is a manmade and naturally occurring chemical used to produce rocket fuel and explosives, but can also be found in bleach and fertilizers, according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website. Perchlorate levels in drinking water are regulated because of research indicating it can disrupt the thyroid’s ability to produce hormones for growth and development.

The contaminant is thought to have leeched from a former fireworks manufacturing site to one of the city’s main drinking wells.

An EPA investigation found “significant perchlorate contamination” at the site, which is now a residential area. The contaminant is thought to have migrated about 3,000 feet through a utility trench to reach the drinking water.

Launched in early December, the EPA cleanup will excavate the top three feet of soil from the contaminated area, relocating it to a toxic materials landfill.

The EPA plans to remove the top three feet of soil from the contaminated site and truck the dirt to a special landfill that handles toxic materials. The excavated site will then be covered with plastic and clean fill. Estimates have the cleanup complete within the month.

Barstow is roughly two hours northeast of Los Angeles by car, according to Google Maps.

California Community Pestered by Pesticide-Tainted Water

By: Duane Craig

Every residential property in Livingston, Calif. that relies on water from city-owned wells can now expect 1,2,3-trichloropropane to be present to some degree in that water, according to an article in the Merced Sun-Star. Livingston’s water supplies have also had problems with elevated levels of arsenic and manganese.

Some local officials appear to be hoping the community accepts the long-term contamination prospects as well as they have. One councilman played down the threat saying it wasn’t serious and that levels of 1,2,3-trichloropropane fluctuate. He said he continues to use the city’s water and also gives it to his children. Another official pointed out the chemical, related to agriculture, had been widely used in the area and had prompted other communities to sue companies that produced and used it.

Livingston itself sued and received a $9 million settlement from companies that participated in the contamination, and local officials say the money is being used to clean up the problem. One approach under development is a specially-designed filter that will remove the chemical. The first of its kind is expected to be completed in fall of 2012.

Livingston is one of many communities across California dealing with the chemical. Its shortened name is 1,2,3-TCP and it was originally found at a Superfund site in the southern part of the state, according to information at the California Department of Health. At about the same time it was found in several wells across the state and in 2009 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported its link to cancer in studies involving laboratory animals. The chemical was used to remove paint and varnish, to clean and degrease materials, as a cleaner during maintenance activities and as an intermediate chemical. It is a byproduct in the manufacture of pesticides based on dichloropropenes, and is used to make soil fumigants.

Land throughout the area near Livingston is heavily used for agricultural purposes leading many to think that its problem is related to pesticide use. Livingston is in Merced County and that county has 25 instances of 1,2,3-TCP being detected in water sources, but the number of detections is on the low side compared to other places in California. For example, Kern County has 108 detections, followed by Los Angeles with 46. Altogether California has 336 sources of water where 1,2,3-TCP has been detected. Still, that might be an optimistic measurement of the potential problem since it doesn’t include 36 inactive, abandoned or destroyed water sources, and doesn’t include agricultural water sources and monitoring wells.

Four Companies Take Next Steps in California Superfund Cleanup

by: Duane Craig

The Environmental Protection Agency reached an agreement with four companies to get the Montrose and Del Amo Superfund sites cleaned up in Torrance, Calif., according to an EPA press release.

This agreement continues the process of closing the contamination books on these notorious sites polluted with monochlorobenzene, a raw material used in making DDT, as well as benzene, naphthalene and ethyl benzene. The two sites are adjacent to one another. Owners of the Montrose site made DDT from 1947 until 1982 while the Del Amo site was a rubber manufacturing facility.

The four companies will build and operate a groundwater treatment system that will pull and treat 700 gallons of water each minute. That equals a million gallons a day. Shell started cleaning up the Del Amo site in 1999 when it put impermeable caps on waste pits and set up a soil vapor extraction system. Over the years, DDT-contaminated soils have been removed from local neighborhoods as well. The cost of the new actions is expected to be a little more than $14 million, with construction of the water treatment facility taking 18 months.

Metal Recycling Operation Spills Contaminants

 Author: Duane Craig

The Environmental Protection Agency put a metal recycling company on notice for allegedly contaminating San Francisco Bay with lead, mercury, PCBs, copper and zinc, according to several news reports.

The company shreds about 300,000 automobiles each year, as well as appliances and other metal products, and loads them onto ships that go to Korea and China so they can be made into new products. It is believed the pollution resulted from debris that fell off a huge conveyor belt used to load the oceangoing ships. Nearby, a 140-acre property that was to be transferred to a nearby wildlife refuge has also been contaminated. A fluffy gray material was reported blowing from the metal recycling site across the nearby land and into waterways.

The company involved, Sims Metal Management, has previously been in the news for a fire five years ago that sent a plume of black, polluted smoke across Silicon Valley. The pollutants this time were discovered in the soil and in the sediment near Redwood Creek. Mercury exceeded the protective levels by 110 times, and copper exceeded the levels by 86 times. Worse yet, polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were recorded at levels 10,000 times the acceptable amount.

You can read more about it at The Kansas City Star, the Sacramento Business Journal and Environmental Leader

Santa Monica Residents Continue Saying No to the Airport

By: Duane Craig

Residents near California's Santa Monica airport have stepped up their efforts to publicize the negative effects the facility has on the quality of their lives. Citing noise, pollution and safety concerns, the citizens are holding public rallies, according to an article in the Santa Monica Daily Press.

One prime concern is the lead contamination from small propeller planes that still use leaded fuel and the effect that has on Santa Monica's reputation as a green city. People have been trying for 10 years to get the airport closed down, but according to the Federal Aviation Administration, that isn't going to happen anytime soon. The FAA claims the airport has to operate forever, even with an impending expiration date on grant obligations. The date is in question as Santa Monica activists say the grant obligations expire in 2015, while the FAA says they don't expire until 2023.

An area bounded by Pico Boulevard, Lincoln Boulevard, Venice Boulevard and Nathan Shapell Memorial Highway takes the brunt of the airport's negative effects. Residents in Santa Monica who live near the airport claim they don't really benefit from its presence and that makes the negatives even harder to bear. Activists have been open to many options including changing some of the airport's operations and limiting the presence of large jets.

Fish Bones Solve Lead Contamination

Pyromorphite used to mitigate lead contamination.

By: Duane Craig
What do you get when you combine a paste made from fish bones with lead? Pyromorphite. What's significant about that is it could be a much less costly way to mitigate lead contamination in soils.
A 2001 Environmental Protection Agency report noted how phosphate would bind with lead and cause it to become a crystalline substance known as pyromorphite. Calcium phosphate is a chief component of bone and once it reacts with lead the resulting material so far appears to decrease in solubility and bioavailability, meaning it remains stable while binding up the lead. Since pollock bones retain little meat residue after processing, they are especially well suited for this process.
Now, according to this report in Business & Health, the technique is set to be used on residential lots that are contaminated by lead. The area is in Oakland, California in the South Prescott neighborhood. So far it has been used on lead contamination at military bases, mines, universities and commercial labs.
It is widely reported that America has such a serious lead contamination problem that it will never be cleaned up. For many decades motor vehicles spewed out lead because the gasoline was leaded to prevent the valves from fouling. Another prime source of lead in soils is lead-based paint that was used on buildings.

Hexavalent Chromium Contamination Digs Into City Coffers

By: Duane Craig

2,200 residents exposed to hexavalent contamination

Corporations sometimes acquire strange bedfellows and for Merck & Co., a pharmaceutical maker, its ownership of a company that pressure treated lumber for building the frames of cooling towers couldn't be stranger. Now, as the company leads the remediation efforts to clean up hexavalent contamination in the Beachwood Subdivision of Merced, California, the City of Merced itself will be paying out $1.5 million to more than 2,200 residents who were exposed to the chemical for more than 25 years, according to this report in the Merced Sun-Star online.

Why is the city paying?

It seems its insurance carriers decided to back out of covering them in the earlier stage of this case back in April. So, since the city was also named in the suit it decided to settle out of court and forego attorney and expert costs of $1 million a year. The city is using sewer funds and reimbursements from insurance carriers to cover the bill.
According to Bloomberg Businessweek the first of three trial phases focused on whether contamination leaked from the plant and the second phase was set to determine if the residents were harmed by the contamination. The plaintiffs argued the companies involved did not try to notify residents even when they knew there was contamination released. Merck admitted knowing, but countered the contamination could not have affected the residents. Hmmmm, maybe land and water contamination is acceptable as long as it doesn't affect people?
I won't bore you with the multiple, identical reports on this one. Here is one and another that report something different from the stampede of identical reports. Here's one about the earlier trial.

UC Davis Addresses Leftover Contamination Below Animal Research Facility

by: Duane Craig

University of California, Davis Campus

Superfund Cleanup at UC Davis

A Superfund site with shared responsibility between the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of California Davis campus enters a new phase of the cleanup--the portion the university is responsible for--and it may be getting quite costly.
The university tested the effects of radiation on beagles, the animal research industry’s canine workhorse. According to this article in The Sacramento Bee, about 800 beagles endured various assaults by radioactive contamination before being dispatched. Twenty years ago their remains were hauled away along with toxic dog waste and contaminated gravel as the first part of the site cleanup. Now, the university must clean up waste pits where it disposed of a wide range of unwanted items, including perhaps an anesthetic.
The anesthesia of choice for the beagle experiments was chloroform, and a plume of that has migrated offsite and is contaminating soil and groundwater below nearby agricultural land. Always the intrepid experimenters, university researchers are using a pilot project to get rid of the chloroform. Air is being pumped into the ground to force the chloroform out of the soil and into a pipe that carries it into the air.
The Energy Department spent decades and millions of dollars on the first phase of this cleanup. But this next part has an amazingly wide potential cost, anywhere from $6 million to $100 million.

CA Home Tagged "Uninhabitable" in Mercury Incident

October 9, 2010 - The home of a student, who took mercury to school on a school bus and prompted the lockdown of three schools, has been tagged "uninhabitable," according to firefighters.

The student spilled mercury in his home on the 200 block of 30th street, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesperson Maurice Luque.

Mission Bay High School and two elementary schools were put on lockdown after the student allegedly took mercury to school and showed it to several classmates.

"One of the students, who was shown this mercury I guess, got some of it and took it on some paper to a ROTC instructor to show him and then he became concerned, as well he should have, and then notified school police," said Luque.

At least seven students at Mission Bay High School, a teacher and the bus driver were exposed, Luque said. Two of the students, including the student who took the mercury to school, and the bus driver tested positive for high levels of contamination. They were decontaminated and showered on campus.

Mercury is highly poisonous.

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CA's Hilmar Cheese Co. Polluted Wells, Reports Show

September 26, 2010 - Hilmar Cheese Co., one of the world's largest cheese producers, is responsible for spoiling neighbors' drinking water wells, new documents show.

For two decades, the cheese factory midway between Sacramento and Fresno has battled state pollution regulators, and this year it won permission to increase the amount of salty, mineral-rich wastewater dumped on surrounding fields.

Now, much of the well water isn't fit to drink. State officials say the company is the likely culprit in ruining at least 18 wells in and around Hilmar. High in nitrates, arsenic, barium and salts, the well water tastes bad and violates federal health standards.

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LA Environmental School Site in Toxic Soil Cleanup

September 12, 2010 - Students at a new green themed school named for noted conservationists Rachel Carson and Al Gore don't have to go far for a lesson in environmental contamination: Their $75 million campus was laden with toxic soil.

Los Angeles Unified district officials have spent $4 million to clean up the site of the new Carson-Gore Academy of Environmental Studies, which is set to open Monday.

The three-acre site, located in a low-income neighborhood west of downtown LA, was contaminated with carcinogenic solvents that leaked from 17 underground storage tanks discovered during construction. The land had been previously used by light industrial businesses.

The school district said the school has been cleared by state toxic control authorities and is ready to receive its 675 elementary students, whose curriculum will be sprinkled with environmental themes.

But a coalition of environmental groups argues the district is not going far enough to prevent possible soil vapor intrusion into classrooms from an outside source of contamination. The site is bordered by a gas station and an oil well.

Testing at the site indicated that contamination was coming from a source other than the storage tanks onsite, said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, who has been monitoring the issue. That pollution could affect the groundwater, which could send vapors into the building.

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CA Team Studying Source of Rialto-Area Water Contamination Gets Funding

September 12, 2010 - Federal money will fund work by the U.S. Geological Survey to determine the source and movement of an underground plume of perchlorate in the Fontana-Rialto area that also threatens water wells serving the city of Riverside.

Officials with the Fontana Water Co. -- determined to find out who is fault for the contamination -- sought the $262,000 from a research arm of the Department of Defense, water company spokesman Rick Ruiz said. The company wants the responsible party to pay for water treatment now funded by district ratepayers, he said.

Water company officials and community activists say Fontana residents are being unfairly burdened because the city is not included in a cleanup plan being developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Last year, the EPA added a nearby 160-acre industrial area in Rialto, known as the Goodrich site, to its Superfund list for hazardous waste cleanup.

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U.S. EPA Settlements Require Investigation of Uranium Contamination On Southwestern Tribal Lands

September 13, 2010 - This week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency entered into two enforcement actions, both of which will contribute towards cleaning up uranium contamination at the Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation.

In one settlement, Rio Algom Mining LLC, a subsidiary of Canadian corporation BHP Billiton, has agreed to control releases of radium (a decay product of uranium) from the Quivira Mine Site, near Gallup, N.M. In addition, the company is to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the levels of contamination at the site. The total cost for this work is estimated to be approximately $1 million.

Under the terms of a separate settlement, the United States Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), will begin a comprehensive investigation of the levels of uranium and other contaminants in the waste, soils and groundwater at the Tuba City Dump Site in Arizona. They will also evaluate the feasibility of a range of cleanup actions.

"Uranium mining has left a toxic legacy, and we are working as partners with the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe and other federal agencies to clean up contaminated homes, mines and water supplies," said Jared Blumenfeld, Regional Administrator for EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. "These actions are just one part of a coordinated plan that has already resulted in the replacement of 14 homes, the assessment of more than 200 mines, and funding for water systems that will serve over 3,000 people with clean water."

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Deal to Clean Up LA-area Nuclear Accident Site

September 4, 2010 - More than five decades after a partial nuclear meltdown just outside Los Angeles, state and federal officials Friday announced agreements to remove all contamination and return the atomic energy and rocket engine test site to its natural state.

Residents who have fought for years for cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory heralded the agreements signed by the Department of Energy, NASA and state officials. The agreements, which commit to a 2017 cleanup date, must still go through a public review process before they are finalized.

"It's more than we'd hoped for a long time," said Marie Mason, head of a homeowner's association whose four members have all been sick with leukemia, breast cancer or serious thyroid conditions. "We are thrilled."

During the Cold War, workers at the site, then-operated by Rocketdyne, tested more than 30,000 rockets and experimented with nuclear reactors on the hilltop where now-hollow gray buildings sit like tombstones.

By the time the lab was shuttered, testing and several nuclear accidents since 1959 left a toxic stew of radioactive and chemical contamination that many believed trickled into the communities below, causing breast cancer, thyroid conditions and a rare eye cancer among infants.

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New EPA Plan Protects CA Neighborhood From Toxic Fumes

September 3, 2010 - Mountain View resident Jane Horton said her fight to have her home tested for toxic groundwater vapors would have been much easier if a recent update to an important Environmental Protection Agency plan had been in place.

For years, Horton was told that the city's toxic TCE groundwater plume stopped in the middle of Whisman Road, 20 feet from her house.

After much public controversy, the computer chip makers who leaked the industrial solvent into the area's groundwater table eventually tested her home in 2003. Unacceptable levels of TCE vapors had made their way through the soil and into her home, and the polluters paid for a system to ventilate her cellar.

"TCE is carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure," and human health effects include kidney and liver cancer, lymphoma and various other reproductive, developmental and neurological effects, according to the EPA in a report issued in December.

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EPA Releases Plan For Toxic Mountain View CA Site

August 23, 2010 - The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a plan last week to prevent toxic vapors from rising into a Mountain View neighborhood's homes and businesses.

Under the plans signed by the EPA on Aug. 16, fans or blower systems may be installed underneath the foundations of buildings in the "MEW" Superfund site to remove the vapors.

The MEW site -- bordered by E. Middlefield Road, Ellis Street, North Whisman Road and Moffett Field -- was once home to industrial companies and government agencies such as the Navy. They used chemicals in their operations that remain in the groundwater, primarily the solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE. The site now contains more than 70 commercial buildings and 100 residences.

Efforts to clean up the groundwater are ongoing, but the EPA discovered several years ago that the toxins were also rising into the air inside the buildings. While the agency determined there were no immediate health risks, the vapors could present a long-term problem.

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El Toro's Unwanted Legacy: Toxic Chemicals

August 6, 2010 - At night, the former base takes on the appearance of a ghost town. With the power to buildings cut off and hundreds of dilapidated buildings still standing, moonlight can play tricks on your mind. Shadows move or seem to move and it doesn’t take too long before normally rational people see things that are not there.

Placed on the National Priority List (EPA Superfund) in 1990 as a result of a trichloroethylene (TCE) plume spreading into Orange County, it was only a matter of time before El Toro was closed. The Navy’s investigation identified 25 contaminated sites on the base, 11 of them were in the most industrialized southwest quadrant where the Marine transport aircraft were serviced in two huge maintenance hangars.

In the 1960s, the hangars were used to maintain the aircraft, primarily C-130s, R4Ds (or C-54s), and several R5Ds (C-47s or Dakotas). The R5Ds and R4Ds were WWII aircraft while the C-130s were the state-of-art transport aircraft in the 1960s. All of these multi-engine transports used an extensive amount of TCE as a degreaser. At one time, El Toro ran a “kind of drying cleaning like operation for aircraft parts.” using 55 gallon drums of TCE hoisted by crane and dumped into a heated vat. Parts were dipped into the vat and just like in your neighborhood cleaners, out came the formerly greased parts, now pristine and ready for use.

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