Date: July 15, 2004

Funding bill to help restore perchlorate-contaminated groundwater basin advances

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Legislation that would provide $25 million to the Santa Clara Valley Water District so it can more quickly deal with perchlorate contamination in a groundwater basin serving south Santa Clara County has won approval of a key Congressional committee.     

The legislation – approved Wednesday by the House Committee on Resources – would fund projects to restore clean, safe drinking water to thousands of people whose wells have been affected by perchlorate, a chemical used to manufacture rocket fuel and road flares, before completion of what is expected to be a decades-long cleanup of the groundwater basin.     

Authored by Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Stockton, the legislation is in response to discovery 18 months ago of an underground perchlorate plume that originated from a former Olin Corp. road flare-manufacturing site in Morgan Hill. The plume stretches 10 miles south through the unincorporated area of San Martin and to the northern boundary of Gilroy’s city limits.     

“We know Olin will live up to its responsibility to clean up the contamination, but it’s going to take several years, even decades,” said Joe Judge, chairman of the water district board of directors. “From the day we found the plume, the water district’s focus has been, and continues to be, on restoring use of the nearly 800 wells affected by perchlorate.     

“Through Mr. Pombo’s generous efforts, we can jumpstart the process of cleaning up and restoring the groundwater basin now, rather than decades from now.”     

State water officials are working with Olin to draft a long-term plan for extracting perchlorate from the groundwater basin. In the meantime, the water district continues working with officials of Morgan Hill, Gilroy, the county, and with community leaders to identify steps that could be taken in the near future to restore use of nearly 800 wells affected by contamination in the Llagas Groundwater Basin.     

Potential actions identified by the community include investment in technology to remove contamination from water pumped through domestic wells serving about 2,000 South County residents; a comprehensive health risk analysis to measure the short- and long-term effects of perchlorate on humans, animals, livestock and agricultural crops, and a stronger community based campaign for a federal drinking water standard for perchlorate established on the best scientific information available.     

The Llagas Reclamation Groundwater Remediation Initiative, as Pombo’s bill is known, still faces final approval by Congress.     

If authorized, it would create a fund administered by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, through the Bureau of Reclamation, to finance groundwater-remediation efforts.      

It provides 65 percent of total funding from the federal government and requires 35 percent from state and local agencies, or private entities.     

Although treatment systems have been installed on two small water systems in San Martin serving about 450 people, some 1,000 homes and businesses continue to rely on bottled water for drinking and cooking needs. 

The Santa Clara Valley Water District manages wholesale drinking water resources and provides stewardship for the county’s vast watersheds, including a series of reservoirs, more than 800 miles of streams and groundwater basins. The district also promotes flood protection for Santa Clara County's 1.7 million residents.

www.valleywater.org