Morgan Hill City Hall is not pleased with Olin Corp. and the
northeast groundwater flow. Nor are city officials particularly
pleased with the Regional Water Quality Control Board. But it could
be worse.
Morgan Hill City Hall is not pleased with Olin Corp. and the northeast groundwater flow. Nor are city officials particularly pleased with the Regional Water Quality Control Board. But it could be worse.
According to a Feb. 19 letter from the Regional Board’s CEO, Roger Briggs, to Olin, the company responsible for polluting South Valley’s groundwater with perchlorate, Olin will have to keep an eye on the groundwater’s movement as it moves northeast of the site but that’s all. It won’t have to test for perchlorate.
The City of Morgan Hill – and ultimately residents – pay for that every month.
Briggs’ letter does leave open the possibility of sampling (testing) for perchlorate.
“A final decision regarding perchlorate sampling will be made after we receive the anticipated April 16, 2004, report.” This will be a detailed groundwater flow assessment report.
Olin so far won’t be made to remove the perchlorate or, so far, pay for any problems it causes the city or residents with private wells – northeast of Tennant Avenue.
“The letter still does not ask them to test for perchlorate,” said Ed Tewes, city manager.
“It’s a little better than Olin’s original proposals,” he said, “even though there is no requirement to test.”
Tewes looks to the April 16 report for some relief.
While Olin proposes to build two new monitoring wells to track the flow path, the Regional Board wants “as many offsite wells as needed to adequately characterize” levels and prepare maps “between the site and the Nordstrom Park well.”
“You’d think that, if they wanted to know which way the water flows, they would also want to know what’s in the water,” Tewes said.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District asked that Olin not use the district’s data to estimate the flow; Olin does plan to drill two new monitoring wells to track the flow. However the Regional Board, in the Feb. 19 letter, said they must build as many wells as necessary to track water flow between the Tennant Avenue site and the Nordstrom Park well.
Nordstrom is a large and relatively new well that had to be shut, along with two Dunne Avenue wells and others during the hot summer season. Morgan Hill reserve water supplies fell to all-time lows, causing sleepless nights for Tewes and Public Works Director, Jim Ashcraft.
“We would have liked to see a requirement for sampling,” said Tracey Hemmeter from the SCVWD Groundwater Management Unit. “But the Regional Board left the door open for that to be required later, based on the April 16 report Olin has to submit. They do need to address it.”
When the chemical was discovered, in January 2003, to have traveled southeast through San Martin from the original dumping ground where Olin and Standard Fusee Co. made highway safety flares for 40 years south, Olin quickly accepted responsibility.
They paid, or are paying for, the city to dig a well to replace the Tennant Avenue well closed because of high perchlorate levels. They helped distribute bottled water to residents whose private wells were contaminated.
But they wouldn’t have anything to do with perchlorate appearing northeast of the site. Over the course of the past year, the city temporarily shut down as many as five municipal wells because they showed perchlorate levels of 4 parts per billion or higher. The state requires only that cities notify customers at those levels but the City Council ordered Public Works to shut the wells off until levels drop below 4 ppb, just to be safe.
No safe level has been determined by the state or federal government. One was to have been set by Jan. 1, 2004 but Gov. Schwarzenegger put a hold on all new regulations at least until his replacement department heads can be installed and brought up to speed.
Tewes said the City Council will see a staff report on Olin, the Regional Board and the April 16 requirements, in the March 3 agenda packet.
Details on the Regional Board’s orders to Olin: http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/ rwqcb3/
