So, the federal government is going to cough up $1.75 million to
help us deal with Olin
’s perchlorate pollution. This, of course, means that it’s
taxpayers’ money, which in turn means that we’re the ones paying to
clean it up. Gee, what a great deal. Sort of like having some kid
spraypaint graffiti all over your house, the kid gets caught, and
you get to clean it up while the
kid goes home to play video games.
So, the federal government is going to cough up $1.75 million to help us deal with Olin’s perchlorate pollution. This, of course, means that it’s taxpayers’ money, which in turn means that we’re the ones paying to clean it up. Gee, what a great deal. Sort of like having some kid spraypaint graffiti all over your house, the kid gets caught, and you get to clean it up while the kid goes home to play video games.
Since gambling isn’t strictly legal in California, with well-known exceptions, I’d be willing to wager in Monopoly money that the Feds (meaning us) won’t ever see a dime of the $1.75 million reimbursed to the taxpayers by the perpetrators, Olin Corp. I’m certainly glad that something is being done to deal with the ever-migrating, ever-expanding plume of perchlorates in the aquifer.
However, I’d like to see our elected representatives taking a bigger stick to Olin than to the taxpayers in this situation. Reading the story in Tuesday’s Morgan Hill Times about this congressional approval for funds to help restore clean water to homes affected by Olin’s disregard for the public’s health had me almost dumbfounded.
Putting filters in people’s homes to deal with the problem in a house-by-house way seems, at first, like a good way to help those who receive tainted water, but asking people to install the systems themselves and then get a rebate is odious, at best. A reverse-osmosis system, properly installed, costs a few hundred bucks, something that might not be easy for some people to pay for, given our extraordinarily un-robust economy.
Maybe Olin’s CEO, Joseph Rupp, who made $750,000 last year, might be able to lend a few bucks here and there to those who don’t want to drink the tainted water. (Send him a letter at Olin Corp., 501 Merritt 7, P.O. Box 4500, Norwalk, CT 06856). Couldn’t hurt to ask.
Then, again, it isn’t certain that reverse-osmosis purification would necessarily work anyway, so then what? Maybe Joe or someone in his 6,000-person company, which routinely deals in some of the nastiest chemicals you can imagine, has an answer.
In the article by Dave Steffenson and Carol Holzgrafe is this gem that tells us how the $1.75 million from the Feds, while useful, won’t help to cover what’s already been spent:
“The grant was offered to the water district from the Environmental Protection Agency and only can be used to further the effort of restoring clean water to families affected by the contamination – not to reimburse the district for money already spent. The water district has spent an estimated $2 million on perchlorate in the last year.”
Translation: With the $1.75 million coming in, we’re only a quarter-million bucks in the hole – with a big asterisk. It isn’t a dollar-for-dollar payback by any means. If it can’t be used to pay for what’s already been spent, the $2 million has gone up the chimney unreimbursed. Bravo.
It’s time that Gilroy, Morgan Hill, and San Martin – everyone affected by this perchlorate plume – get into hardball mode. It’s time for suing the state and local water districts for malfeasance (for not moving quickly or effectively enough on this matter), suing Olin for cleanup and damages, and suing the federal government to whack Olin as hard as possible.
I’m not trying to enrich lawyers, although the cases are sure to have that side-effect. But in lieu of any other means, the legal channels are all we’ve got.
It’s disgraceful how this whole situation has been handled from top to bottom: More than a year of tail-chasing has gone on while the plume has expanded, the situation has worsened, and there’s still no remediation. Nor is there any quantification of the effect of the perchlorate on the livelihood of our local farmers, the values of our local property, and the health of humans and animals in our area. We only know it’s bad, and things are moving too slowly to actually solve the problem.
In times like these, when cities are strapped for cash, when counties are similarly broke, and the state is staring at another multi-billion-dollar deficit, it’s simply unbelievable that our communities are stuck paying for the kind of thing that a truly responsible company would take care of.
Olin should dig up their tainted dirt, pay back the taxpayers, and clean up the water. It’s that simple.
A tech writer, editor, and web developer, Tom Mulhern is a longtime South Bay resident. He and his wife have been living in Gilroy for three years. You can reach him at tm************@ya***.com
