There
’s troubling perchlorate news on two fronts: Olin and the
federal government. First, Olin, which insisted upon and received a
private meeting – possibly multiple meetings – with the state
Regional Water Quality Control Board staff members.
There’s troubling perchlorate news on two fronts: Olin and the federal government. First, Olin, which insisted upon and received a private meeting – possibly multiple meetings – with the state Regional Water Quality Control Board staff members.
It’s suspicious that Olin would want to confer with regional water quality control board staffers specifically outside the presence of stake holders in the perchlorate mess that’s resulted from the now-closed road flare factory on Tennant Avenue in Morgan Hill.
This type of closed-door, shut-out-the-public, keep-away-other-agencies meeting does little to build trust in the cleanup process and does much to bolster suspicion that Olin is trying to skirt its responsibilities for the perchlorate plume its factory caused.
We urge the directors of the regional water quality control board to direct its staff to conduct no more hush-hush private meetings with Olin, and to do everything in an out-in-the-open way that will build confidence that the cleanup will be properly handled. Afterall, this is our drinking water.
On to the other bad news: Congress appears poised to give the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the agency responsible for our water systems, $1.75 million for the perchlorate cleanup effort. The money is part of an omnibus appropriations bill approved by the House of Representatives and on its way next month for consideration by the U.S. Senate.
Why is that bad news? Because the perchlorate mess is Olin’s responsibility, and the cleanup cost is its bill to pay. Not yours, not the folks in South Dakota, not the residents of Maine, not any taxpayer’s responsibility – writing those multimillion-dollar checks is Olin’s job. While the water district is rubbing its hands together with glee in anticipation of our millions of dollars (“… We are very excited about it,” water district director Rosemary Kamei of Morgan Hill said), we’re shaking our heads in confusion.
We’d rather see federal money spent on perchlorate research aimed at resolving the multitude of still-unanswered yet critical questions about perchlorate, such as:
• What is a safe level of perchlorate in drinking water for adults?
• What is a safe level of perchlorate in drinking water for special populations such as infants, children, the elderly or those with chronic illnesses?
• What is a safe level of perchlorate in drinking water for livestock, small animals and pets?
• What is a safe level of perchlorate for water various types of agricultural products?
We could go on and on. Instead, the government is poised to spend $1.75 million of our money on a clean-up effort that Olin ought to be busy writing checks to cover, while much needed research lags and is tied up in political wrangling between environmentalists, defense industry contractors and the Pentagon.
Enough! The regional water board staff must allow the other agencies involved in this perchlorate mess access to the meetings. In fact, our legislators, state Sen. Bruce McPherson and Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, need to tell the regional board staff and members to make sure this does not occur again.
Olin – not taxpayers – must pay its cleanup bills. We’ll be watching to make sure this happens.
