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.

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.

Iowa Community Considers Trading Wells for Community Water

By: Duane Craig


Hills, Iowa residents who are in the path of an expanding underground plume of perchlorate are bracing for the day when they might be told their wells are contaminated with the chemical, according to this article.

Up to now, about 30 homes have been fitted with reverse osmosis water treatment systems to purify their well water, but the plume is on the move and is expected to affect even more homes, according to an official with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

But any new water well contamination will be met with two choices - drill a new well and hope it doesn’t come up contaminated, or vote for the installation of a municipal water system. People in the community have their own wells and only pay the cost of pumping the water. But, if a municipal system is set up, then the estimated monthly bill for 4,000 gallons is expected to be about $50, and everyone will be required to hook up.

The community, though, already has another water problem - nitrates. Voters decided against a municipal water system proposed in 2007 to address the issue. But now, there is $4.63 million available from the Environmental Protection Agency to address the nitrate problem, and $1.9 million of that is a forgivable loan with a low interest rate.

There are residents who were against the water system in 2007, that no longer are, mainly because of the newly available money and the potential for attracting new businesses because of having municipal water.

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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ANP Agrees to $5 Million Groundwater, Soil Cleanup in AZ

January 8, 2010- The U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Apache Nitrogen Products, Inc. entered into a $5 million consent decree to remove toxic nitrates and perchlorates from groundwater and to monitor the progress. at the Apache Powder Superfund Site, near David.

Nitrates can cause blue baby syndrome and strangle infants and perchlorates have been found to cause fetal defects. By 1989 the company was providing bottled water to their neighbors and eventually the company would drill deep wells to provide uncontaminated water to St David residents.

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CA Perchlorate Treatment Funding Passes Senate

January 5, 2010- About $1.9 million in federal funds will flow to the region to treat wells contaminated by perchlorate, a rocket fuel additive that some scientists say can affect physical and neurological development by interfering with the thyroid gland.

Perchlorate is flowing from the north end of Rialto - partly from San Bernardino County property and partly from a 160-acre site to the east where defense contractors and fireworks companies operated after World War II.

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California City Wins Lawsuit Regarding Dry Cleaning Pollution

May 20, 2009 - A San Francisco jury has awarded $18.3 million to Modesto in a long-running lawsuit the city filed 11 years ago against producers of dry cleaning chemicals that leached into soil and polluted groundwater.

Modesto intends to put the money away for groundwater cleanup and to pay its attorneys' fees in the case.

The city argues that the chemical makers -- Dow Chemical of Michigan and PPG Industries of Pennsylvania -- bear a share of the responsibility for what could amount to $100 million in costs to remove perchloroethylene, a chemical referred to as PCE that is suspected of causing cancer, from Modesto groundwater.

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EPA won't limit toxic pollutant in drinking water

September 22, 2008 - The Environmental Protection Agency has decided there's no need to rid drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that has fouled public water supplies around the country.

The ingredient, perchlorate, has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states at levels high enough to interfere with thyroid function and pose developmental health risks, particularly for babies and fetuses, according to some scientists.

The EPA document says that mandating a clean-up level for perchlorate would not result in a "meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems."

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FDA study finds that three quarters of nearly 300 commonly consumed foods and beverages are contaminated with perchlorate

Environmental Working Group: A study published in January 2008 by scientists from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finds that three quarters of nearly 300 commonly consumed foods and beverages are contaminated with perchlorate, a toxic rocket fuel ingredient (Murray et al 2008). EWG analysis of these results finds that the levels of perchlorate in food potentially put the health of millions of children at risk. Two-year-olds appear to be particularly vulnerable because they have graduated to real food and eat substantial amounts relative to their size.

According to FDA's analysis of 285 foods, every day, the average two-year-old will be exposed to more than half of the EPA's safe dose of perchlorate from food alone. Children are also exposed to perchlorate in contaminated tap water, in at least 28 states.

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Contamination Plume Under California Town

May 21, 2007 - Buried deep beneath mounds of dust and landfill in the city of Rialto, California lies a legacy some wish could stay buried forever. But that legacy—a chemical left over from spent rocket fuel—has now surfaced as a potentially dangerous pollutant in drinking water.

That chemical is perchlorate, an ion present in salts. Since perchlorate was detected in water wells near Rialto in 1997, residents have been paying to remove it from their drinking water.

In this primarily black and Latino city of 100,000, families pay as much as an extra 15 percent on their water bills as a "perchlorate surcharge." So far these charges have added up to $6.6 million since 2002.

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