It’s time for other officials and agencies to get involved to
better monitor perchlorate cleanup in South County water table
News that unsafe perchlorate contamination levels have been found on a private well west of Monterey Road indicates the chemical’s nine-mile plume has further dispersed from the southeast section of Tennant Avenue.
And that means the contamination is larger and more widespread than originally thought. For years, we have believed the plume’s travel extended from the most contaminated area of Olin Corporation’s now-defunct road-flare plant on Tennant Avenue, all the way south past Masten Avenue in San Martin and near the Gilroy border. Now with the news of a contaminated new well west of U.S. 101 it means Olin, responsible for the “gluppity glup,” has not been telling us the complete truth.
Perhaps Olin hasn’t known how extensive the contamination is, but discovery of the private well with almost 9 parts per billion of perchlorate contamination, well above the state’s public health goal of 6 parts per billion, indicates more work is needed on Olin’s part to clearly define the plume’s placement. Most disconcerting is that the private well is near an area served by a pair of large wells supplying water to about 250 homes, which leaves us wondering how safe that water is for the residents in that part of town. It’s time Olin Corporation explain this to the public, particularly to well owners where the chemical has been found.
The State Department of Health Services, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Santa Clara County Water Board, the California Environmental Protection Agency and our newly elected congressman Jerry McNerney and Assemblyman John Laird need to get involved to get Olin and those managing the cleanup to be completely truthful about its location. Failure to take responsibility for the contamination on the part of Olin’s officials is an insult to those with contaminated wells. They shouldn’t tolerate any perchlorate in their drinking wells. Olin is lucky the state has adopted the 6ppb standards when Massachusetts in August adopted a more stringent 2ppb.
Olin should also be held responsible for perchlorate cleanup north of Tennant Avenue. The city has spent thousands of dollars treating wells and it should be reimbursed by Olin for those expenses.
Olin’s recent cleanup proposal of the plant’s most polluted areas indicates it could take almost two years to complete. Its cleanup plan, while we’re sure has been reviewed by experts with the water board, fails to address the chemical’s poisoning of the dirt around the plant, dirt that moves and needs to be treated. While groundwater will be extracted, cleaned of pollutants and then injected back into the soil, it will continue to be contaminated by the perchlorate in the soil. We need to address contamination in the soil.
The water board needs to immediately test other wells near the contaminated one to protect the health of nearby residents.
San Martin Neighborhood Alliance President Sylvia Hamilton, who’s also chairwoman of the Perchlorate Community Advisory Group, rightly declared to Morgan Hill Times staff writer Tony Burchyns in an interview about the issue: “I don’t think we’ve done enough work to be sure of its boundaries.”
Olin must do more work to clearly delineate the contamination area, address contamination in the soil and come up with a quicker and more detailed cleanup effort that clearly identifies where the pollution is located. We know the company is not hurting financially so the money is there for more aggressive testing and cleanup efforts.
