SAN MARTIN
– Securing bottled water to drink in the midst of the aftermath
of last week’s perchlorate contamination news has apparently been
somewhat of an adventure for some San Martin residents.
At a community meeting on the water contamination issue
Thursday, several residents said they’d experienced delays and
shortage of supplies in receiving the bottled water from a program
administered by the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
SAN MARTIN – Securing bottled water to drink in the midst of the aftermath of last week’s perchlorate contamination news has apparently been somewhat of an adventure for some San Martin residents.
At a community meeting on the water contamination issue Thursday, several residents said they’d experienced delays and shortage of supplies in receiving the bottled water from a program administered by the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
Crystal Springs in Santa Cruz was awarded the contract to provide bottled water to affected residents. Olin Corp., whose now-defunct Tennant Avenue fuse plant is the source of the contamination, is footing the bill.
San Martin resident Bob Cerruti said officials waited a week to set up the bottled water deliveries to his Moreno Court home after they first informed him of the contamination in his well.
The company failed to show that weekend as scheduled, he said. When a delivery arrived three days later – after Cerruti complained – the driver brought only a third of the requested 75 gallons he estimated he’d need over the course of a few weeks.
“I’m having to fight this water here,” he told officials.
Other residents described a chaotic scene at a water distribution station at Morgan Hill’s state fire station, noting that even some Gilroy residents were among those picking up the bottles. Officials have estimated the southern terminus of the contamination plume is around Masten Avenue.
“It was a madhouse,” said one resident.
Water district officials were apologetic and asked residents to bear with them Thursday, noting they were trying their best but that the alternate water supply situation had quickly snowballed to large proportions.
“Quite frankly, we’ve never been in this situation before,” said water district spokesman Mike DiMarco. “This has been quite a learning experience for us.”
DiMarco said eight trucks have made over 700 deliveries of bottled water in San Martin so far, but the district has been inundated with over 2,000 calls for assistance.
“The company and district didn’t believe this would grow this quickly,” DiMarco said. “It quite frankly has blown up in our faces.”
Crystal Springs plant manager Jeff Metter said Thursday that it was difficult providing enough water on such short notice, but now supplies are sufficient.
“The demand is tremendous,” he said. “Once we got supplies in we were fine but coolers are required to undergo treatment and refurbishing (before re-use) and that is time consuming.”
Metter said he worked 23 hours on Wednesday, managing with only a single hour of sleep. Other employees worked many hours of overtime as well, he said.
“We have gotten ahead,” Metter said. “The road now is downhill instead of uphill.”
Residents who live in the affected area and get their water from private wells have been told to call the water district’s perchlorate hotline at 265-2607, ext. 2649 to arrange for a free test of the well. Those residents are then given a code, allowing them access to the free water supplies.
Staff Writer Carol Holzgrafe contributed to this story.
