Morgan Hill
– Olin Corp. the former safety flare company responsible for a
groundwater contamination that has spread south to Gilroy, said it
is not to blame for the chemical perchlorate found north of Morgan
Hill.
Morgan Hill – Olin Corp. the former safety flare company responsible for a groundwater contamination that has spread south to Gilroy, said it is not to blame for the chemical perchlorate found north of Morgan Hill.
The firm recently released a 49-page report backing up its claim that it had nothing to do with perchlorate contaminating city wells north of its site.
“It’s a suspicion at this point,” said Mike DiMarco, spokesman for Santa Clara Valley Water District. “Our staff is still investigating the (report).”
Olin has repeatedly stated that it intended to accept responsibility for the contamination that has flowed south to north Gilroy and has generally followed the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s orders. It paid for a new well to replace the Tennant well, 275-feet south of the Olin site and closed in spring 2002 when high levels of the chemical were found.
But the company began to balk when the contaminated Nordstrom and Condit wells, one mile north of the former safety flare manufacturing plant at Tennant and Railroad avenues, were discovered and the city wanted the same financial treatment.
“We believe we have met all of our commitments to the regional board and to the community of Morgan Hill,” said Rick McClure, Olin project manager for the cleanup effort.
Perchlorate was discovered in early 2003 to have leached from the Olin site through soil and into the aquifer and traveled through south Morgan Hill, San Martin east of Monterey Road and slightly into north Gilroy, contaminating hundreds of wells slightly and dozens significantly. The regional board has been monitoring Olin’s response and has issued orders to the company directing study and free bottled water delivery to residents on affected wells.
City Manager Ed Tewes objected Wednesday to the report’s conclusions.
“We are disappointed in the lack of rigorous analysis,” Tewes said. “The report was clearly not based on monitoring well data but appears to be based on historic data without any real scientific analysis.”
It is taking the water district, the city and the regional board considerable time to sort through and analyze the hundreds of pages of charts, graphs and supporting material that accompanied the report, and no one is ready to make definite claims until they have.
The city has been trying to get Olin to accept responsibility for perchlorate northeast of the site, even though studies show that the underground aquifer flows predominantly southeast. One possible explanation is that as the northeast wells pumped water it drew perchlorate-laden water north.
Olin, which operated it’s plant in Morgan Hill for 40 years, disputes this.
“The detections of perchlorate between Morgan Hill and San Jose are completely unconnected to the former flare facility,” the company said in a press release.
McClure, agreed with the report that pumping changed nothing.
“The northern wells have not influenced the water flow,” McClure said Wednesday, “and if there are detections of perchlorate north of Tennant Avenue they come from some other source.”
McClure encouraged the city to look into other possible sources.
DiMarco said last year that several other sources could be considered.
“There used to be several fertilizer plants in the area,” he said. The plants imported “bulldog soda” from Chile, partially composed of sodium perchlorate. “The source could also be left-over flares or fireworks or even methamphetamine labs,” he said.
United Technology Corp. on Metcalf Road in Coyote Valley tested rocket engines using perchlorate-containing fuel for decades.
“There is plenty of clean water between the UTC plant and city wells,” Ashcraft said.
David Athey, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Board’s project manager for the Morgan Hill/San Martin perchlorate situation, said Wednesday that they, too, were still reviewing the report.
“We will meet with Olin and the city (and the water district) on Sept. 22,” Athey said. “If it looks like they are on the right track, we’ll say go forward. If not, we’ll provide direction to Olin.”
Olin representatives will attend a Perchlorate Community Advisory Group meeting the next day where they will discuss the report and answer questions from a concerned community.
Perchlorate Community Advisory Group meets Sept. 23, 7-9pm at the San Martin Lions Club, 12415 Murphy Avenue behind the airport.
