Gilroy
– The Perchlorate Community Advisory Group (PCAG) has garnered
national recognition for helping engage hundreds of Llagas Valley
residents in south Santa Clara County in the investigation and
cleanup of widespread contamination of their groundwater basin.
Gilroy – The Perchlorate Community Advisory Group (PCAG) has garnered national recognition for helping engage hundreds of Llagas Valley residents in south Santa Clara County in the investigation and cleanup of widespread contamination of their groundwater basin.
The Groundwater Foundation named the affected Llagas Valley as a “Groundwater Guardian” community – a designation recognizing PCAG’s efforts to educate and involve residents affected by perchlorate contamination, as well as for the group’s work with local and state public agencies working to clean up the pollution.
“This is wonderful,” said Sylvia Hamilton, PCAG’s chairwoman and president of the San Martin Neighborhood Association. “In the beginning we were paying our own expenses and now we have access to a little bit of money. We’ve only spent about $100, but when it comes out of your own pocket it adds up.”
The award gives the group access to databases and repositories of the Groundwater Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey, and other resources. It also funds administrative support provided by the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the local Groundwater Guardian affiliate.
“What Sylvia and the Perchlorate Community Advisory Group have accomplished is tremendous. PCAG has really energized the community, bringing it together to protect its interests and to make Llagas Valley a better community,” said Water District Director Rosemary Kamei, whose district includes the Llagas Valley.
Perchlorate, a salt that can inhibit thyroid functions in humans, was discovered in 2003 from a former highway flare manufacturing firm in Morgan Hill owned by Olin Corp.
The chemical has been found in more than 450 water supply wells in an 18-square-mile area south through San Martin to the north and east of Gilroy.
PCAG includes a representative each from the Central Coast Regional Water Board – the lead regulatory agency in the perchlorate-contamination case – the cities of Gilroy and Morgan Hill, and the Water District, as well as local residents.
At least 1,000 homes are relying on bottled water until perchlorate is cleaned up from the groundwater basin – Llagas Valley’s only drinking water source.
