Gilroy – Residents in San Martin who get their water from wells
that test below the state’s public health goal for perchlorate will
no longer receive bottled water.
Gilroy – Residents in San Martin who get their water from wells that test below the state’s public health goal for perchlorate will no longer receive bottled water.
Since 2002, the Olin Corp. has been providing water to residents whose wells test as low as 2 to 4 parts per billion, at the direction of the Central Coast Regional Water Control Board. Earlier this year, the state water board said that the regional board “abused its discretion” by forcing Olin to replace water testing below the public health goal of 6 parts per billion.
According to the order finalized Thursday, Olin can discontinue bottled water delivery for wells that test below the health goal for four consecutive quarters.
Sylvia Hamilton, chairwoman of the Perchlorate Community Advisory Group in San Martin, said she’s disappointed by the decision, but ready to move ahead with cleanup.
“I’m just anxious to move forward,” she said. “I think the parties worked very hard to try to find something that everybody could be in agreement on, and when you have agreements like this, there are always going to be things you wish were in there.”
Perchlorate was discovered in 2000 at the site of a former road flare factory operated by Olin on Railroad Avenue in Morgan Hill. The plume has spread about 9.5 miles to the south and east of the site, contaminating more than 1,000 wells in the area.
Olin says it has spent more than $780,000 since March 12, 2004 providing water to the users of 566 wells that test below 6 parts per billion. Providing water only for those wells that test above 6 parts per billion and monitoring wells as low as 2 parts per billion, Olin has said, will “fully protect the public.”
Olin continues to install ion-exchange treatment systems on the area’s worst-affected wells. Although the ion-exchange system is a proven technology, Olin has not been able to have the new units certified by the California Department of Health Services because they are too small. Without certification, Olin could potentially be liable if one of the treatment systems were to fail.
Recently, DHS indicated it would work with Olin and the Santa Clara Valley Water District to develop a quasi-certification process that would allow Olin to cease bottled water deliveries to the users of wells with ion-exchange systems.
“It’s a lot more convenient, it’s protective of all the uses of a well, it’s better all the way around,” Hamilton said of the treatment systems. “I’m anxious for this to get moving down the pike as fast as possible. The more wells that have ion-exchange on them, the faster we’ll clean up the aquifer for everyone.”
Olin is now developing the final cleanup plan for the aquifer, which it must submit to the regional board by June 30, 2006. The regional board is currently reviewing the first major piece of that plan, a proposal by Olin to install a series of wells to delineate the exact scope of the plume and determine perchlorate concentrations at various groundwater levels.
The proposal has been criticized by Gilroy officials who say it doesn’t do enough to ensure that Gilroy’s water supply has not been contaminated.
In comments to the regional board, a consultant to the city wrote that “it can not be strongly enough stated that the use of production wells for plume monitoring will not result in the successful … delineation of the plume.”
Once a monitoring plan has been approved by the regional board, Olin will have 30 days to begin installation.