MORGAN HILL
– The Santa Clara Valley Water District complained just before
Thanksgiving to the state Regional Water Quality Control Board
about being shut out of some critical meetings with the Olin Corp.
over perchlorate cleanup.
MORGAN HILL – The Santa Clara Valley Water District complained just before Thanksgiving to the state Regional Water Quality Control Board about being shut out of some critical meetings with the Olin Corp. over perchlorate cleanup.
The Water District, which controls and monitors the county’s water systems, sent an angry letter to the state Board, the lead agency handling the perchlorate problem that has plagued Morgan Hill, San Martin and parts of Gilroy for the past year.
“We are very concerned that the Regional Board staff has been meeting privately with Olin … simply because Olin has ordered it,” said Stanley Williams, SCVWD’s chief executive officer.
“We strongly object to the adoption of any order by the Regional Board without first providing an opportunity to submit written comments on the proposed order, and a public hearing to discuss written comments and recommendations by the public which it does not include in the CAO.”
Harvey Packard, senior water resources engineer for the Regional Board, said Thursday that officials from the two agencies have already begun talks about the rift.
SCVWD is a member of the Perchlorate Working Group, along with the cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy and Santa Clara County, the agencies most affected by the contamination. Olin Corp. is the company responsible for perchlorate contaminating groundwater from 40 years of manufacturing road flares.
Olin met privately with the Regional Board to work out a plan to clean up the soil and groundwater at the Tennant Avenue plant site, specifically asking that no other agency be present, according to Packard.
“The PWG met recently to discuss the impending Cleanup and Abatement Order against Olin, which the Regional Board plans to issue without further hearing or public review and comment …,” said Williams in the letter to Bruce Daniels, Central Coast Regional Board chair.
Packard said they passed the minutes from the meeting onto the Water District.
Packard said the Regional Board’s door is always open.
“We’re willing to meet with anybody, anytime to address anybody’s concerns,” Packard said. “At the same time, however, we don’t have the authority to force anybody to meet with us.”
Williams said the Perchlorate Working Group has little or no information about the Cleanup and Abatement Order the Regional Board plans to impose on Olin and wanted its questions and suggestions, attached to the letter, considered.
“We are insisting that the attached “Cleanup and Abatement Order Elements” be included as part of any final order,” Williams said in the letter.
The elements insist that Olin do the following:
• develop and begin to implement alternative water replacement supplies for municipal (including residential), industrial and agricultural uses,
• submit a work plan describing the perchlorate in the underground aquifer by February 2004,
• install and begin operating interim measures to stop the movement of the perchlorate from the Tennant site and prevent it from spreading any further than it has to date,
• set up a monitoring network to discover the size, shape and movement of the perchlorate plume and submit monthly and quarterly reports and that the reports be sent to all Perchlorate Working Group agencies and public libraries,
• submit a technical report acceptable to Daniels, containing the results of the investigation, evaluation of the plume’s migration, interim remedial actions and alternative water supplies; to evaluate remedies for basin contamination and recommend cleanup actions and goals.
Tracy Hemmeter of SCVWD’s Groundwater Management Unit explained why the letter was sent.
“We wanted to make sure our comments would be heard and input taken in cleanup and abatement order,” Hemmeter said.
The water district’s mounting costs received some attention this week when the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill sending $1,700,000 to SCVWD to help with the cleanup. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Stockton, sponsored the bill. Pombo has represented Morgan Hill but not San Martin or Gilroy since the 2002 elections.
