Letters to the Editor

Holding Olin Corp. Accountable

Dear Editor,

Olin Corporation must and will be held accountable for contaminating our aquifer, in making some of us sick and endangering our lives. Their plant in Morgan Hill discharged waste water into percolation ponds as late as 1990.  They continued to do this when we all knew from the tragedies of the Love Canal of the late 1970’s and others that all byproducts from manufacturing that contain known and unknown toxins and carcinogens must be disposed of using treatment solutions, devices and plants. To continue to discharge as late as 1990 in my opinion was not an act of ignorance or incompetence but a deliberate act in defiance.

To date we have a nine-mile-long southerly plume under San Martin and moving towards Gilroy and we have a portion moving north into greater Morgan Hill as well. It is diluted in some respects but remains a danger to all of us. We treat it as much as we can but our treatment systems can not remove it entirely. Some perchlorate is in all of our water. We know what’s in our system today, what we do not know is what was in our drinking water in 1970, 1980 and 1990. It could have been 10,000 times higher than current readings when the plant was in full operation and the plume in higher concentrations. Our city had a well directly across the street from the Olin plant, pumping perchlorate-tainted water to all of our residents for quite some time. It is unknown who was harmed and who has suffered. We know that perchlorate affects the thyroid, contributes to thyroid conditions and will lead to birth defects under certain conditions. Our County Health Department has yet to conduct a comprehensive study of our population to identify those effects and who was affected. Those of you who suspect that you or family members where harmed, need to come forward so that we can clearly identify the nature and extent of this contamination. Please contact County Board of Supervisor Don Gage and ask him to initiate the necessary studies with the County Health Department and to fully investigate this matter at local level.

On broader issues and complications, the EPA has yet to conduct a definitive study on what is safe. Research has stalled in my opinion because the current administration has decimated many of the budgets of our regulatory agencies. Under the budget knife the Bush Administration will close the EPA library which catalogues research and makes it available to its scientists and the public. One way to reduce the effectiveness of any agency is not to change the laws or statues of governance but to reduce it effectiveness by withholding operating funds so that it can not do the work it is authorized to do. The EPA must give the American people a comprehensive study on the existence, prevalence and toxicity of perchlorate and Congress must insure that it does.

While our federal government languishes, our state makes poor decisions. It recently set a maximum contamination level at 6ppb. That is higher than what other states have done yet lower than some others. The state’s decision is faulty. It does not address that fact that perchlorate is not only in our water supply, but in our milk, fruits and vegetables, and combined presents a greater health danger than previously anticipated. Our state must reverse its recent ruling in light of new studies from the Center on Disease Control and Prevention and set a true safe level if a safe level actually exists.

While battles continue at the federal and state level, locally Olin not only must pay for treating our water and reimburse us for the millions you and I have already spent but also pay to clean the water basin and return it to what is known as the background level as established by law. A background level is defined as the state to what it was before contamination. We as a city will work with them but they have to take responsibility for what was done, and accept responsibility for the effects on our population and property, and present us with a plan, and a time table that removes the toxin from our water supply. Our local and regional water districts must step up to its responsibility by enforcing the laws that gives it authorization. 

Our water must be protected. None of us should ever have to worry that water at the tap is harmful to us or our children. It is the city’s policy to treat wells at any time a registered reading is greater than 4 ppb or take them off the line. Some would have us adopt the state’s 6ppb. I believe we exercise caution and hold to our policy until there is definitive information on what is safe.

As your elected councilmember, I will do all that I can to insure your interest, welfare and safety. I could not and would not do less.

Mark Grzan,

Member of Morgan Hill City Council