San Martin
’s Sylvia Hamilton took the South Valley perchlorate fight to
Washington, D.C., Wednesday and picked up a compliment from a
powerful Congressional subcommittee. Hamilton was invited by Rep.
Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, to testify before the Resources
Subcommittee on Water and Power about the effects of
groundwater pollution were having on residents and how they were
dealing with it.
San Martin’s Sylvia Hamilton took the South Valley perchlorate fight to Washington, D.C., Wednesday and picked up a compliment from a powerful Congressional subcommittee.
Hamilton was invited by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, to testify before the Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power about the effects of groundwater pollution were having on residents and how they were dealing with it.
Rosemary Kamei, the South Valley representative to the Santa Clara Valley Water District, also testified and Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy sent comments along to the committee.
Pombo has introduced a bill, HR4459, which would – if passed and funded – set aside $25 million to defray some of the costs of dealing with the contamination. The testimony was to start the bill on its lengthy way through committee to House vote to approval by the Senate and the president.
After hearing from the local delegation and one from Southern California, which has its own perchlorate problems, committee members told Hamilton they were impressed with the way citizens and agencies had banded together to tackle the problem and keep the public informed.
“They complimented our local group for community, water district agency and local newspaper participation,” Hamilton said. “They said we were a strong role model for the rest of the country.”
In turn, Hamilton said she was struck by the committee’s knowledge of the problem.
“I was impressed with all the committee members,” Hamilton said. “They really knew about perchlorate.”
Hamilton said it was difficult to cram everything she wanted to say in the five minutes she was given but managed to cover the three points she wanted to make. Members of PCAG, the Perchlorate Community Advisory Group, of which Hamilton is chair, consulted with her on the points.
She said she wanted the committee to hear about the human element of finding perchlorate in one’s water and of “stoppers” or hurdles to fixing the problem.
“People ask if it (perchlorate) is the cause of their health problems and those of their animals,” she said. “What is it’s effect on agriculture and the agricultural economy?”
Hamilton told the committee that even using the free bottled water Olin has been supplying to residents of contaminated wells is a problem.
“Those bottles are heavy and difficult to maneuver,” she said. “Olin has done a lot but there is still major contamination of domestic wells – little talk and no action.”
Stoppers, she said include the fact that no perchlorate removal technology (for private homes or small wells) has been certified by the government and there is still no process for certification. And there are no standards for what level of perchlorate in water is safe.
“We need a federal standard based on the best science,” Hamilton said.
There has been some controversy since the State of California announced in March a Public Health Goal of 6 parts per billion or lower as the level not posing a significant health risk to humans, making it the first state in the nation to do so. Previously the “action level” at which point water providers must notify their consumers of the chemical’s presence in drinking water, was 4 ppb. Setting the level higher unsettled many perchlorate-watchers.
The next step for the state will be to set a maximum contaminate level (MCL), which is the highest level of a chemical allowed in drinking water.
Hamilton’s point was that the federal government has not yet set either level.
The Southern California group talked technology, not standards, she said, and urged more research. Hamilton, however, stressed the two parts of the perchlorate fight: the part Olin Corp. must fix (cleaning up the source and helping well-owners get clean water) and the part that belongs to the government – standards and certifying perchlorate removal technologies.
“No one – not the federal agencies, not me – should take the responsibility away from Olin,” she said.
Hamilton, a retired teacher whose work for PCAG is entirely volunteer and who pays for some costs herself out of her retired teacher resources, also paid for her trip to Washington, D.C. However, she did have some help.
“Tracey Hemmeter gave up her private air miles for me so my plane ticket was free,” Hamilton said. “And she found me (and a friend) the lowest cost way to get to Washington. She was great.”
Hemmeter is head of the water district’s perchlorate project.
Kennedy, through his written remarks, said the City of Morgan Hill supports Pombo’s groundwater remediation program proposed in HR 4459 and urged the subcommittee to send it on to the full committee (of which Pombo is chair) for its consideration.
He then presented the city’s problems with perchlorate, financial and legal, and its frustration with Olin Corp.’s trying to sidestep part of its responsibility – namely the fact that the chemical has migrated north to several municipal wells. Olin only takes responsibility for perchlorate south of its source site.
The South Valley perchlorate comes from the manufacturing of safety flares at an Olin Corp. plant on Tennant and Railroad avenues in south Morgan Hill. Perchlorate, an oxidizer which makes the flares burn more efficiently, leached from on-site disposal ponds down into the groundwater and eventually found its way into hundreds of private and municipal wells.
At least 18 wells show perchlorate levels of between 10 and 18 ppb with several dozen showing between 6 and 10 ppb.
Most of the Southern California perchlorate contamination comes from the manufacture of rocket fuel – which also uses the oxidizer – but which contaminated mostly municipal wells.
Kamei did not respond to several requests for comment by press time.
Pombo’s district includes Morgan Hill. San Martin is represented by Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose and Gilroy by Mike Honda, D-San Jose. Hamilton said she met with Pombo and representatives of Lofgren and Honda before the meeting.
On Tuesday the Environmental Working Group released a study that found perchlorate in milk from Southern California cows.
On Wednesday a Senate committee approved $4 million to clean up the chemical in the Rialto-Colton Basin, where a seven-mile plume has contaminated 22 drinking water wells in western San Bernardino County. Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-California, introduced the bill which still must be approved by the Senate as part of the 2005 defense spending bill.
“What’s clear is that perchlorate is now permeating the food chain. . . . It’s a very serious thing, and the No. 1 contributor is the Department of Defense,’ ” Feinstein said.
Perchlorate has been linked to thyroid damage.
The next PCAG meeting is Thursday, July 22, 7-9 p.m. at the San Martin Lion’s Club, 12515 Murphy Ave. Details: www.smneighbor.org, www.valleywater.org or Sylvia, 683-2667.
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at ch********@*************es.com or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
