The Santa Clara Valley Water District has set a date to bring
together the interested public with related agencies and experts on
the effects of potassium perchlorate on private wells in parts of
south Morgan Hill and San Martin.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District has set a date to bring together the interested public with related agencies and experts on the effects of potassium perchlorate on private wells in parts of south Morgan Hill and San Martin.
The meeting, on Wednesday, Feb. 12, from 7-9 p.m. at San Martin/Gwinn Elementary School, will allow the public to get an updated picture of the well contamination situation from representatives of several agencies involved with the problem.
“We want to answer the kind of questions we had last Thursday (in San Martin),” said Mike DiMarco, public information officer for the water district.
At the meeting, residents who drink from some of the 450 private wells suspected of contamination from perchlorate demanded answers about the chemical’s effect on themselves, their families, their animals and crops.
At the time, few answers were to be had but DiMarco said Wednesday that the district hoped to consult experts in the field.
The meeting on Feb. 12 will address the cause of the contamination, its potential health effects, agricultural concerns and potential cleanup strategies.
Little, however, is known of the impact from the low levels found in local wells. Perchlorate was found in 12 of the first 100 wells tested, with one well showing 90 parts per billion and the rest four to 10 ppb.
The perchlorate comes from the former Olin Corp. plant in Morgan Hill, located on Tennant and Railroad avenues, just east of the railroad tracks. Olin and Standard Fusee manufactured safety road flares from 1955 to 1997 on the site. Perchlorate is a byproduct of the manufacturing process.
The chemical leached into the ground, into the underground aquifer, or water table and began migrating southeast, showing up in private wells – but not wells owned and run by the City of Morgan Hill or San Martin – in an area bounded by Tennant Avenue to the north, Masten Avenue to the south, Monterey Highway to the west and Center Avenue to the east.
The Morgan Hill city well on Tennant Avenue did show levels of perchlorate of 4 and 7 ppb in April 2002; the well was immediately closed and has not shown traces since, according to City Manager Ed Tewes.
The chemical “plume” could have effected more than 450 wells in the area serving as many as 2,000 people. All wells are being tested by the water district, which DiMarco said, will continue well into early March.
Results take about three weeks.
Olin has taken the responsibility of supplying free bottled water to any affected resident who asks. California state law also requires the company to take responsibility for clean up and its costs. Rick McClure, who was a plant manager at the Tennant Avenue Olin site, said the clean up may take as much as 30 years; he could not estimate the cost. The company is investigating the best way to attack the problem and is considering a small water treatment plant on the site, he said.
Cities elsewhere in the state, notably Southern California, are wrestling with the problem of perchlorate-contaminated water. The production of rocket fuel is a large source of the chemical and the area was heavily populated with defense industries.
The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, Dr. Martin Fenstersheib, Santa Clara County public health officer, DiMarco said, will attend the meeting.
DiMarco said the district was awaiting confirmations from other agencies sent invitations this week and hope to have experts from the University of California Cooperative Extension office speak on the effects on crops; the United States environmental protection agency (EPA); Greg Von Wassenhove, Santa Clara County agricultural commissioner, and Jenny Derry, executive director of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau.
In other perchlorate-related news, DiMarco said that training for public health nurses active in South County began this week. The nurses were chosen to contact the many Spanish-speaking farm workers and their families living in the area of possibly polluted well.
Perchlorate can disrupt the body’s ability to take in iodide, affecting thyroid glands. It has also been linked to tumors and cancer.
• The school is located in San Martin at 100 North St., east of the railroad tracks and Monterey Road, just north of San Martin Avenue and can be reached from Llagas or Depot Avenues.
The SCVWD perchlorate hotline is 265-2607 x2649; www.valleywater.org
