Regional water regulators say they need at least another few
weeks before releasing a draft order on clean-up strategies for
polluted groundwater in the Gilroy-Morgan Hill region.
Gilroy – Regional water regulators say they need at least another few weeks before releasing a draft order on clean-up strategies for polluted groundwater in the Gilroy-Morgan Hill region.
Residents, who have subsisted on bottled drinking water for three years, were promised at an Aug. 3 public meeting that they would receive copies this week of the long-awaited report.
But on Wednesday, officials at the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board said it will be several more weeks before residents receive copies. The additional time is needed so agency managers can review and sign off on the document, according to Executive Officer Roger Briggs.
“We made a mistake sharing the preliminary draft (order),” Briggs wrote in an e-mail, referring to the release of a sole copy to a San Martin politician. “Since its release has been delayed from our original expectations, staff was perhaps overly anxious to be responsive and to show we really are working on it. However, due to an internal communication error, the document hasn’t gone thru our review chain. As a preliminary draft, it will change in many ways before it’s ready for public review, so it would be confusing to the public and actually wasteful of anyone’s time to review it when it will change before being issued.”
At the Aug. 3 meeting of the Perchlorate Community Advisory Group, water board engineer Hector Hernandez told residents that copies of the 24-page draft order would be sent out that day through standard mail and e-mail. While holding off on a general mailing to the public, the agency released a copy of the “preliminary draft” Wednesday to the Morgan Hill Times, after the paper pointed out that the state Public Records Act requires disclosure of any document when it has been given to another member of the public.
Just prior to the Aug. 3 meeting, Hernandez provided a copy of the order to PCAG Chairwoman Sylvia Hamilton. She could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
The task force of residents and water regulators oversees efforts by Olin Corporation to clean a 10-mile stretch of groundwater contaminated with perchlorate. The salt, known to cause thyroid dysfunction in high enough concentrations, is a byproduct from decades of road flare manufacture at Olin’s former Tennant Avenue plant.
The report offers a detailed history of the perchlorate spill and actions Olin has taken to clean up the contamination. It also includes technical details on soil composition and groundwater flow, among other things. The most controversial section of the report involves a mandate to clean groundwater to pre-contamination levels. Water board officials have long promised to hold Olin to that standard, though the company has tried to shift some responsibility for contamination levels to mushroom farmers and other potential sources of pollution.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District is currently conducting a forensic study to pinpoint the sources of perchlorate in the region’s groundwater. If that study proves inconclusive, Central Coast water board officials have said they plan to enforce the more stringent clean-up goal. They have also said, however, that they might loosen the standard if Olin demonstrates that large investments in clean-up would yield minimal results.
