SAN MARTIN
– State Assemblyman John Laird frustrated more than one San
Martin resident when he expressed concern over home-based
perchlorate tests on produce at an otherwise matter-of-fact town
hall style meeting last week.
SAN MARTIN – State Assemblyman John Laird frustrated more than one San Martin resident when he expressed concern over home-based perchlorate tests on produce at an otherwise matter-of-fact town hall style meeting last week.
The freshman assemblyman used a session of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance to persuade owners of perchlorate-tainted wells that he is the best man to fight their ongoing battles in Sacramento.
However, to convince many alliance members of that, Laird and fellow legislators must launch studies that can determine perchlorate levels in store-bought produce. And, he should validate the soon-to-be-released results of a similar backyard experiment one San Martin resident is undertaking himself.
“That’s one thing that concerns me. I just worry about what (the experiment and its results) might mean for agriculture here and how it might not be representative of the entire area and what’s going on,” said Laird, who is chairman of the state’s Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials. “I just hope people are judicious when that unfolds and the information is released to the public.”
Others, from San Martin residents to farm bureau and water district officials, have expressed Laird’s concerns. The worry goes like this: A test in one area shows perchlorate is getting absorbed by a particular crop of fruit or vegetable. People panic and stop buying produce, even though the experiment may not be reliable or valid for other kinds of produce in other areas.
Laird’s comments came less than two weeks before San Martin resident Bob Cerruti releases results from his home-based tomato plant experiment. Cerruti, who owns a well that has recently tested for perchlorate at 10 parts per billion, wants to show how much of the rocket fuel ingredient is absorbed into produce, specifically tomatoes, when grown using contaminated water.
“I will most certainly make the results public. You can’t put this in the closet,” Cerruti said. “It’s clear that my experiment has to do with just a fraction of the whole impact to agriculture. These are my tomato plants grown on my property with my well water.”
Although state and federal agencies are conducting perchlorate agricultural studies there is currently no federal health standard for food, let alone drinking water. The state is using an advisory drinking water level of 4 ppb to trigger warning notices.
Perchlorate is believed to cause thyroid problems in humans. Meanwhile, the government hasn’t completed the studies that show exactly what level of perchlorate becomes harmful.
Cerruti, whose wife has complications with her thyroid, thinks the concern by Laird and others regarding potential losses in ag sales is hypocritical.
“Where were these people when it was learned in January that there was perchlorate in the groundwater?” Cerruti said. “They responded to the well owners (by delivering bottled drinking water), but they didn’t do anything to help the farmers. They should have been bringing water in by the truckload.”
Working backward
At the San Martin alliance meeting, another resident told Laird he and the state are trying to solve the perchlorate problem in the wrong way.
Charles Logan told the assemblyman there should be more studies done on the health impacts of perchlotrate ingestion. Logan says the majority of the state’s focus is placed on preventing the chemical from getting into water sources, tracking where it goes once it does enter and cleaning it up once it’s found.
“What are we trying to prevent? And what is the level at which we should be trying to prevent it?” Logan asked. “What if Olin gets told to get the area cleaned up to 3 ppb, but we find out later that 2 ppb gives you thyroid tumors? You get to dig into that pocket once, just once.”
Olin Corp. is the company that contaminated at least 450 wells from Morgan Hill to Gilroy when it used perchlorate to manufacture flares at a now defunct factory. It is delivering drinking water to impacted well owners and is studying how to clean up the site and other areas. Nearly 300 lawsuits have been brought against the company since perchlorate was discovered in the tri-town area.
Logan says the state should work with the Environmental Protection Agency which is putting together nationwide studies on perchlorate levels and their health impacts.
Laird says the state must go through certain legislative hurdles to get a better handle on the perchlorate problem. Those hurdles include setting a so-called public health goal and maximum contaminant level for perchlorate – standards which can be used for regulating clean up and victim compensation.
“Work with the federal government so you at the state level don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” Logan told Laird. “Lawyers will always find their clients a way of redress.”
