The City Council decided Wednesday to lease and install a second
perchlorate treatment plant at a city well
– possibly the Nordstrom well – adding to one it will lease for
the Tennant well, starting this month.
The City Council decided Wednesday to lease and install a second perchlorate treatment plant at a city well – possibly the Nordstrom well – adding to one it will lease for the Tennant well, starting this month.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District board said Tuesday that it would fund the Tennant plant for one year but would only loan the city money for the second plant, dashing city hopes that the district would pay for both.
Both agencies have said Olin Corp., the company responsible for the contamination south of Tennant Avenue, will be billed for costs associated with clean up procedures.
Terms for repayment have not yet been determined.
The portable treatment plant will be installed at the Tennant well, closed in April 2002, when significant levels of perchlorate appeared in routine tests.
The plants will each cost will cost, according to Mike DiMarco, spokesman for the water district, between $300,000 – $400,000 plus installation, maintenance and operating expenses. The district earlier said it had reserved $1.05 million for the plants, which are designed to “pump and treat” water.
According to Jim Ashcraft, city public works director, the SCVWD board will require the city to reimburse the board only for money it eventually receives from Olin to cover the cost of the Tennant plant.
In April, the city returned a $450,000 check from Olin, covering the cost of drilling a replacement well for the Tennant well. The city had submitted documentation that its related costs were $710,000. City Attorney Helene Leichter said it is not wise to accept payment for a partial amount since the courts might consider that sufficient payment.
Olin officials did not return telephone calls Thursday about paying the latest costs but, in the past, company spokesmen have said Olin would meet its responsibilities.
As summer approaches, city officials wanted to ensure it would be able to meet the increased water use from residents and, with several wells off line because of low levels of perchlorate, officials said they were concerned.
Ashcraft said the first plant should be in operation by early July, after which the installers would work on the second well. Before a plant treating potable (drinking) water can operate it must be have a permit from the state Department of Health Services.
A permit request for the Tennant facility was submitted the last week in May, Ashcraft said, and an amended application for the second plant would be sent off next week.
“It usually takes 30 days to get a permit from DHS,” he said, “but we are working hard.”
The Nordstrom well was closed, along with the Condit and one Dunne Avenue well, in early March when the water tested above four parts per billion, the level at which the city must notify its customers – the ‘action level.’
The request for an outright grant for the additional well was denied by the board, according to DiMarco, because the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board – the lead state agency overseeing the South Valley perchlorate problem – has not issued an order to the Olin Corp. enforcing the company’s responsibility for the area north of Tennant Avenue, that includes the Nordstrom well.
As such, there is no assurance that Olin would ever pay for perchlorate treatment north of Tennant Avenue.
“This is not a risk to take with taxpayers money at this time,” DiMarco said.
“There is not a lot of data showing that the perchlorate could have moved in that direction,” said Harvey Packard, senior water resources engineer for the Regional Board. “We are still evaluating it and may at some point issue an order.”
But none is planned for now, he said.
Marc Lucca, senior project manager for the SCVWD’s imported water unit, said Thursday that there have been discussions between “numerous parties” about Olin’s ultimate responsibility for contaminated water outside the original boundaries. The Regional Board, he said, is evaluating the possibility of issuing an order requiring Olin to do so.
However, no order has yet been issued and he is not aware that one is imminent.
A former Olin safety flare plant at Tennant and Railroad avenues is the acknowledged source of the perchlorate contaminating hundreds of private and some public wells from Tennant Avenue south to Leavesley Road in Gilroy. That source site is at least 7,000-feet from the Nordstrom well; Olin has not yet registered responsibility for the chemical appearing north of the site.
Before perchlorate showed up in the Nordstrom and other Morgan Hill wells, it was believed the contaminated plume of water flowed a southeasterly direction.
Olin has been ordered by the regional board to cleanup the perchlorate-saturated soil on its site and to present a plan to cleanup the underground aquifer south of Tennant Avenue; the order made no mention of water outside the boundaries of Tennant, Foothill, Leavesley avenues and Monterey Road.
All 13 Morgan Hill city wells tested on May 27, showed nondetect, or below 4 ppb – except the Tennant well, that is no longer tested.
That will change immediately because the well will be reopened.
“We will be testing Tennant water,” City Manager Ed Tewes said.
Both Ashcraft and Tewes repeatedly stress that city water is safe.
“Morgan Hill city water meets or exceeds all state regulations for safety,” Ashcraft said recently. Tewes notes whenever he speaks of the water issue that the city went above and beyond state requirements by taking wells offline that show any detectable levels of perchlorate. The state rule is that wells must be shut if their levels rise above 40 ppb.
“The council policy is to always err on the side of caution,” Tewes said Thursday.
Perchlorate interferes with the uptake of iodide to the thyroid and, in sensitive systems, can cause problems. Infants and pregnant women are especially susceptible because of the developing brains of fetuses and newborns.
Results of the Morgan Hill municipal wells are posted on the city’s website at www.morgan-hill.ca.gov and on the cable Channel 17 bulletin board.
Perchlorate information: • Santa Clara Valley Water District: www.valleywater.org • Regional Water Quality Control Board: www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb3/ • San Martin Neighborhood Alliance: www.smneighbor.org• Rancho Cordova perchlorate project: www.perchlorate.org • Environmental Working Group: www.ewg.org • City of Morgan Hill: www.morgan-hill.ca.gov
