San Martin residents with perchlorate in their well water will
continue to get bottled H2O
Morgan Hill – San Martin residents whose well water is laced with trace amounts of perchlorate will continue to receive bottled water.
More than 100 families were due to lose their bottled water this month because their wells test below 4 parts per billion for the contaminant known to inhibit thyroid function.
But in a quiet rebuke to the Olin Corp., the company responsible for the pollution, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board declined to act on the company’s request to cease delivery for the users of 78 wells that have tested at or below 4 ppb for the past year.
The procedural move – the board did not deny the request but did not take action on a resolution to support it – means the wells users will continue to receive water through May. Under a state board order, Olin can at that point stop bottled water delivery to wells that have tested at or below 6 ppb for a year.
Company engineer Rick McClure said the board’s non-action was frustrating because it leaves Olin no possibility of redress.
“That they made no motion is just shocking. I think Olin could have even lived with a denial,” McClure said. “The regional board (staff) wasted a lot of time and effort and taxpayer money to prepare a resolution … and Olin wasted a lot of time and effort addressing this.”
Olin polluted South County’s groundwater with its road flare factory that it operated in Morgan Hill from 1955 to 1987. The plume stretches about 9.5 miles south through San Martin and east of Gilroy. Olin has supplied water to more than 1,100 families using about 900 wells for three years at a cost of more than $1 million.
No one in the community has argued against ending bottled water delivery to families whose wells test at such low levels. Sylvia Hamilton, chairwoman of the Perchlorate Community Advisory Group, said the one benefit of the board’s lack of action was that Olin will have to conduct one more round of tests on the wells, providing more data about the perchlorate plume.
“It’s important that there is a lot of monitoring so we know if there is a change in the trend,” Hamilton said. “As long as we’re very careful and make sure there are lots of wells around those wells [that will not be monitored as of May] being monitored, the outcome is just fine.”
Hector Hernandez, the regional water board engineer said he believes the water deliveries and monitoring of the 78 wells will cease in May and that other monitoring efforts are sufficient to track the plume.
“It appears there is a downward trend in perchlorate concentrations,” Hernandez said. ” Thus, at this time, there is no reason to believe that the wells won’t continue to show levels below the 4 ppb in the coming months. However, we are confident the existing groundwater monitoring network will detect any fluctuations in groundwater concentrations.”
