Morgan Hill
– Olin continues to resist claims by the City of Morgan Hill
that the perchlorate found in the Nordstrom, Condit and San Pedro
wells came from the company’s former flare manufacturing site at
425 Tennant Ave.
Morgan Hill – Olin continues to resist claims by the City of Morgan Hill that the perchlorate found in the Nordstrom, Condit and San Pedro wells came from the company’s former flare manufacturing site at 425 Tennant Ave.
The company that manufactured safety flares and washed perchlorate-laden refuse out onto the ground for 40 years insists there is no way the chemical could have leached into the underground water table and traveled north to city wells.
Olin does accept that the chemical traveled south and east, polluting hundreds of wells in south Morgan Hill and east San Martin.
While the city maintains that only by drilling new monitoring wells can the aquifer’s true flow be discovered, Olin assured the state Regional Water Quality Control Board in a public report in September and in a follow-up paper on Oct. 12, that historical geologic data collected proves there is no way the northeast perchlorate is theirs.
“Together, the (reports) even more clearly demonstrate that groundwater beneath the Olin site has not moved northeast to the Nordstrom Park well,” said Rick McClure, Olin’s project manager for the contamination cleanup effort.
City Manager Ed Tewes begged to differ.
“It’s indisputable that there is perchlorate in the city’s domestic wells north and east of the Olin site,” Tewes said Monday. “Olin has failed to show any reason why that perchlorate is not theirs.”
Olin has appealed the regional board’s original order to cleanup its site and provide an alternative water source for everyone affected by its perchlorate.
In perchlorate-related good news, the city turned the Tennant well back on in mid-October. It had been offline since detectable levels of perchlorate were found in spring 2002, causing stress on the city’s water delivery abilities during periods of high water use. All wells currently test below 4 parts per billion, the point at which the city must report the chemical’s presence.
