MORGAN HILL
– It’s crunch time with Morgan Hill wells and their perchlorate
contamination. Olin Corp., which has claimed since January to be
taking
”
responsiblity
”
for the chemical’s presence in much South Valley well water, is
backing off.
MORGAN HILL – It’s crunch time with Morgan Hill wells and their perchlorate contamination. Olin Corp., which has claimed since January to be taking “responsiblity” for the chemical’s presence in much South Valley well water, is backing off.
The City of Morgan Hill and the Santa Clara Valley Water District planned to have Olin eventually pay for a portable water treatment plant installed on the Tennant Avenue well, shut down in March 2002 because perchlorate had migrated across the street from a former Olin plant.
Now Olin is objecting to the plant, claiming it will make its mandated aquifer cleanup more difficult and expensive.
The California Regional Water Quality Control Board on May 13 directed Olin Corp. “to submit … a plan to fund wellhead treatment so the city can use the Tennant Avenue well during summer 2003” or “an alternative plan to allow the city to use the well this summer or provide water supply to replace the City of Morgan Hill’s Tennant Avenue well.”
Olin’s response, in a letter to the regional board on May 22 from vice president Curt Richards asserted that the company had, indeed, complied with the board’s request to provide an alternative to the Tennant well. That compliance consisted of sending a check for $455,384.50 to the city to cover the cost of digging the San Pedro avenue well – constructed for the exact purpose of replacing the Tennant well.
The city, however, has returned the check because, according to the city attorney, the amount covered only part of the cost.
