Felkins ANTHOLOGY and HOTSHEETS / HOT TIMES YAHOO MAIL!
*Copyright Madeline L. Felkins
1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 2004 2005 2006 All Rights
*Please Scroll to DTSC Director Ed Lowry Resigns after Learning He was to be Fired by Governor Schwarzenneger
Perchlorate Migrates Offsite During Heavy Rains
Rains Clean Up Toxins at Development Site Near Lab
Perchlorate No Longer Detected at Dayton Canyon Creek
By Kerry Cavanaugh, Staff Writer
LA Daily News
21 January 2006
WEST HILLS - Heavy rainfall over New Year's weekend apparently washed away much of the contamination from the site of a planned luxury-home development, just days before state toxics officials were supposed to begin digging up the chemical.
Where officials found the rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate at up to 1,300 parts per million in the fall - roughly 166 times higher than acceptable limits - they detected none of the chemical in tests taken after the storm dumped about 3 inches of rain on the site.
Perchlorate is a salt that dissolves easily and moves with water.
"We wanted to do the right thing, we wanted to make sure we got the perchlorate out of there, but it didn't happen. We had big rains and now it's gone," said Sayareh Amir, branch chief of the Department of Toxic Substances Control Southern California Cleanup Operations.
The discovery complicates an already controversial investigation.
Last spring, Centex Homes measured very high levels of perchlorate in Dayton Canyon Creek, which flows through their property at the west end of Roscoe Boulevard. The land is 1.3 miles downhill from the Santa Susana Field Lab, where the chemical was used in rocket engine tests, prompting concern that the perchlorate originated at the lab.
In December, the DTSC announced it would launch an emergency cleanup of the perchlorate Dec. 12, before the rain. But community activists accused the agency of trying to rush the cleanup and erase potential links to the field lab, so it postponed the removal to give activists more time to review the plan.
Elizabeth Crawford with Physicians for Social Responsibility said she was disappointed that environmental regulators didn't move faster after the contamination was discovered in May.
"This is exactly what we were afraid of, that perchlorate would be liberated and move off-site," she said.
Longtime lab watchdogs worry that Centex Homes and the DTSC will not investigate possible links to the field lab now that the high levels of perchlorate have dissipated.
Dan Hirsch with the Committee to Bridge the Gap said the agency will not conduct further tests for perchlorate until the rainy season is over in late March. "If there's still perchlorate anywhere on that property, further rain will cause it to migrate more," he said.
Amir considers the field lab a potential source of perchlorate and plans to test the soil up to the lab boundary after the rainy season.
Despite high concentrations of perchlorate that may have been washed from the creek into the Los Angeles River, officials said they don't think the chemical will affect water quality or groundwater supplies downstream.
"I'm not concerned about a relatively small amount of perchlorate during a large rain flow," said Jonathan Bishop, executive director of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. "We don't like it, but I'm not concerned that this is going to affect drinking water downstream. It's just moving during those rain events to infiltrate (into groundwater)."
Pentagon Finds Perchlorate Contamination at 14 Bases
Mon 26 Jul , 8:37 AM ET
By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon says it found contamination from a toxic chemical, perchlorate, at 14 abandoned or scheduled to be closed military bases nationwide. But a Democratic senator said Friday more facilities should have been examined.
In the report sent to lawmakers, the Pentagon said it found the chemical in ground water and soil samples at closed sites in 10 states.
Perchlorate, a toxic chemical from rocket fuel and weapons production, has been linked to thyroid damage.
The amounts found ranged from 1.2 parts per billion in ground water at Fort McClellan in Alabama, to as high as 2,890 parts per billion in some samples of ground water at Fort Wingate Depot in New Mexico.
There is debate about what constitutes dangerous levels of perchlorate, but the Environmental Protection Agency's draft proposal for drinking water is one part per billion. Some but not all drinking water supplies draw on ground water.
Perchlorate has been found in drinking water supplies in 29 states and has also been found in vegetables.
The eight-page report, issued in response to a congressional mandate, was more than two months overdue. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., released a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Friday saying it didn't meet congressional demands.
Feinstein said the report should have addressed 74 potentially contaminated closed bases � a number contained in a General Accounting Office report from 2003.
She also complained that the Pentagon shouldn't wait for the EPA to issue a final national standard for perchlorate to develop clean-up plans. The final standard isn't expected until 2006 and the report indicates clean-up at most bases will wait until then.
"This report makes clear that the Defense Department intends to continue to drag its feet until a federal standard for perchlorate is adopted, wasting precious time and exposing millions of Americans to the hazardous effects of perchlorate contamination of water supplies," Feinstein wrote. "This is an irresponsible and unacceptable approach to a serious problem."
A Pentagon official defended the report, contending that in some cases remediation wasn't needed because the amounts of perchlorate found weren't significant.
"We believe that our response to the congressional request for the report was responsive, and that the concerns that Sen. Feinstein has raised were really outside the request of the report," said Alex Beehler, assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for the environment, safety and occupational health.
The 14 bases listed in the Pentagon report were:
Fort McClellan in Alabama; Fort Ord, El Toro Marine Corps Base, McClellan Air Force Base and Mather Air Force Base in California; Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado; Savanna Army Depot and Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois;
Jefferson Proving Ground in Indiana; Fort Wingate Depot in New Mexico; Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon; Red River Army Depot in Texas, which is open, but scheduled to be closed; Camp Bonneville in Washington; and White Oak Naval Special Warfare Group in Maryland.
(SUBs last graf to correct that Red River Army Depot is not closed but schedule for closing; SUBs 1st graf to add that some sites in study still open but to be closed.)
Tests Near Rocketdyne Sought
From a Times Staff Writer
April 27, 2004
Ventura County supervisors will consider requiring proposed development projects within a two-mile radius of the Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory to conduct soil and water contamination tests for chemicals harmful to humans.
The development guidelines, sponsored by Supervisor Linda Parks, would require testing for perchlorate and trichloroethylene � two of the most common sources of contamination at the hilltop site above Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley � and other chemicals.
The proposal is scheduled to be considered May 4 by the Board of Supervisors.
It would require developers to pay the cost of testing, which could range from $250 to $3,000, and to take the necessary steps to ensure public safety and to help avoid potential liability issues.
"If the initial study determines toxins are present � a plan of action to reduce potential exposure to humans would be part of the mitigation," Parks wrote in a report to the board outlining her proposed guidelines. The supervisor could not be reached for comment Monday.
Those measures could include laying a deeper concrete pad, reducing the amount of grading, moving elements of the development to reduce human exposure, identifying alternate water sources and removing the contaminated soil.
Perchlorate Limits May Ease Lab's Cleanup
By Roberta Freeman Ventura County Star Staffwriter
March 22, 2004
Earlier this month the California Environmental Protection Agency raised the limit on the amount of perchlorate allowed in drinking water by 50 percent.
The new guidelines ease some pressure on the defense industry, including the Boeing Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Lab in the hills south of Simi Valley, charged with cleaning up perchlorate pollution in soil and groundwater caused by decades of rocket engine testing and munitions research.
Now detections of the toxic chemical, a primary ingredient in rocket fuel, road flares and explosives can reach 6 parts per billion -- roughly 6 drops in an Olympic-size swimming pool -- 50 percent higher than the previous level of 4 ppb.
T.R. Hathaway, toxicologist with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, expects it will be at least a year before a final determination is made by the federal EPA.
"The 6 ppb doesn't carry any weight with the law," he said.
While the Department of Toxic Substances Control had been mandating Boeing to clean up perchlorate contamination at the site to the 4 ppb drinking standard, EPA officials said for now, they would be working by the new limit.
However, according to department geologists, the distinction between perchlorate levels in soil is slightly less acute than in water.
The EPA had previously been arguing for a limit between 1 ppb and 2 ppb, while the defense industry has been asking for limits more than 7 ppb, claiming insufficient science to uphold the EPA's preferred standard.
The lower limits, the EPA argued, were most protective of human health, especially for pregnant women and infants. Perchlorate has been linked to thyroid disorders and retardation in infants.
Dan Hirsch, co-chair of the Santa Susana Field Lab Workgroup, a group of citizens and state regulatory agencies established more than 10 years ago to monitor cleanup of the lab, said he believes the EPA has caved in to pressure from the defense industry by easing up the standards.
Hirsch points to the Colorado River, a source of drinking water for some 15 million people, which registers perchlorate levels of 6 ppb. Industries charged with the pollution of that river, he said, will not have to clean it up if the current limit holds.
Perchlorate is scheduled as the primary topic of Wednesday's public meeting in Simi Valley about cleanup at the lab. Levels of perchlorate have registered as high as 1,600 ppb in the Happy Valley area of the Boeing site, and at lower levels in groundwater at the Simi Valley floor.
Simi Valley drinking water, however, is imported, and the few groundwater wells used have not tested positive for the chemical.
The state has ordered a number of new wells be installed at the lab, Brandeis Bardin, and most recently, Runkle Canyon, where detections of the chemical have been found in silt and groundwater.
The aim of the investigation is to determine if the contamination has migrated through soil, bedrock and deep groundwater to the Simi Valley floor. Results from the new wells, officials said, are not expected until April.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control is scheduled to present information Wednesday about a new biotreatment for perchlorate at the lab. The method proposes to use methyl soyate and citric acid as a food source for bacteria in the contaminated soil, which will in turn use the perchlorate as an oxygen source.
The Santa Susana Field Lab Workgroup meeting is scheduled for 6:30 10 p.m., Wednesday at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Ave.
*Director of Department of Toxic Substance Control Resigns
Director Ed Lowry Resigned 12 July When He Learned He Would be Fired by Governor Schwarzenegger
By Miguel Bustillo
Times Staff Writer
July 14, 2004
The head of California's Department of Toxic Substances Control has resigned after learning he was going to be fired by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Ed Lowry, a Democrat appointed by former Gov. Gray Davis in 1999, said he had asked Schwarzenegger's secretary of environmental protection, Terry Tamminen, whether he had a future as director of the department, which regulates hazardous waste and oversees the cleanup of contaminated land.
Lowry had yet to hear a response when an employee in his personnel office told him the Schwarzenegger administration was preparing the paperwork to award the job to one of his deputies, Republican B.B. Blevins.
Lowry said he then confronted Tamminen last week and "asked him whether I was going to be reappointed or not, and he told me the decision was made to go with someone else. But he said it might not take place for a while.
"I told him that if that was the decision they had made, then I would leave right away."
Lowry served his last day on Monday. In an e-mail informing his staff members of his departure, he said he was proud of a new program they had instituted to clean up tainted school sites. He said he had enjoyed working with Tamminen and planned to help Blevins, a former member of the state's energy commission, get situated.
Schwarzenegger administration officials, however, later said they had not determined who would replace Lowry, Lowry said.
"The administration has received Mr. Lowry's resignation," Schwarzenegger spokesman Vince Sollitto said. "The governor thanks him for his service. He has not yet made an appointment to that position."
Lowry said he did not think the administration's decision was shaped by any disagreements over his handling of environmental issues. Some environmentalists said Tuesday they had favorable opinions of both Lowry and Blevins.
Top Regulator Hears Cleanup Complaints
By Rachel Uranga
Daily News Staff Writer
15 July 2003
SIMI VALLEY -- In a rare personal appearance, the state head of toxic cleanup heard complaints Tuesday from dozens of residents about the pace and manner of cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Lab, a rocket-engine test site in the hills between Simi Valley and Chatsworth.
"I'm here primarily to listen. I want to give you an opportunity to express your views to me," said Edwin F. Lowry, a former prosecuting attorney who heads California's Department of Toxic Substance Control, which is overseeing some of the effort to clean up chemical contamination at the site.
Lowry visited in an attempt to ease tensions with a community long frustrated with the slow cleanup and what many suspect to be collusion between regulators and Boeing, the parent company of the original field lab owner, Rocketdyne Propulsion & Power.
"We call the shots as we see them," Lowry said in response to criticism of the department's relationship with Boeing. Lowry promised the crowd that his department will publish a response to the meeting held at Valley View Middle School.
For months neighbors have suspected that perchlorate -- a colorless chemical associated with rocket-engine testing and linked to thyroid dysfunction -- seeped off the Rocketdyne site and into the basin of Simi Valley.
Boeing officials have maintained that no perchlorate trickled off the site.
At the meeting Simi Valley City Councilman Steven Sojka demanded to know the source of perchlorate found in 18 Simi Valley water wells.
Others, including Chatsworth resident Bonnie Klea, wanted to know when more testing would be done on the east end of the Rocketdyne site.
Earlier in the day, Lowry -- with several site neighbors from Simi Valley and Chatsworth along -- toured the roads surrounding the Cold War testing site, including Black Canyon Road, which curves around the northeastern portion of the site.
The residents have long complained that chemicals from the site are linked to the illnesses of nearby residents.
Boxer Announces Agreement On Perchlorate Contamination
California and DOD Cooperating on Safe Drinking Water Standard
07 August 2003
HOTSHEETS
Rialto, CA- U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer was joined at a press conference in Rialto today by John Paul Woodley, Jr., Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for the Environment and William L. Rukeyser, Assistant Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, to announce that the Department of Defense (DoD) has agreed to abide by California's safe drinking water standards for perchlorate and communities' right to know as they work to clean up perchlorate contamination.
Boxer, who has led the federal effort to clean up perchlorate contamination in California communities, made the announcement following a tour with local elected officials of the contaminated area of Rialto.
Boxer said, "This is an important breakthrough. Defense Department activities have been a major source of perchlorate contamination in California. This kind of active cooperation will help us find and fix perchlorate problems throughout the State."
The agreement between DoD and the State of California includes the following four components:
 First, DoD will comply with any final perchlorate regulatory standard promulgated by California, including a safe drinking water standard, and will not attempt to delay compliance until a federal standard is adopted.
Second, DoD will form a federal/state interagency perchlorate working group to help set clean-up priorities, marshal resources, and communicate California's adopted perchlorate standards. This group will not influence the development of California's safe drinking water standard.
Third, DoD will provide information on California perchlorate contamination and schedules for testing.
And finally, DoD has stated that its attempts to secure exemptions from certain federal environmental laws are not intended to exempt the Department from liability for cleaning up perchlorate contamination.
Boxer added, "John Paul Woodley has been a great help in securing this landmark agreement. The well-being of millions of Californians depends on this agreement. In the coming months, I will monitor this issue closely and work to ensure that this agreement holds."
Earlier this year, Boxer introduced two bills on perchlorate. The first bill would establish a federal standard for perchlorate contamination in drinking water supplies by July 1, 2004. The second bill would guarantee a community's "right-to-know" about the use of perchlorate by companies. Boxer also asked the Food and Drug Administration to investigate perchlorate contamination in food grown in the U.S.
 |
|
Toxin Found in Simi Valley's Ground Water
State officials aren't sure where the perchlorate came from,
but nearby Rocketdyne lab has the same contamination. Official State Drinking
supplies Safe.
By Amanda Covarrubias
Times Staff Writer
December 5 2002
*Please Scroll to Lower Page for Information Regarding Testing for Perchlorate in Chatsworth, West Hills, and Valley Wells
State investigators have found a highly toxic chemical used in
rocket fuel in 18 water wells in Simi Valley, but the
contamination has not been traced to the nearby Rocketdyne
testing site.
The chemical perchlorate, which has been linked to thyroid
problems, has also been found in wells at the Santa Susana Field
Lab, but there is no evidence that contamination in the city
migrated from there, according to a new report by the state
Department of Toxic Substances Control.
Drinking water supplies are not contaminated or threatened,
officials said, because most of Simi Valley's tap water is
imported from Northern California.
With the latest findings, perchlorate has now been detected in
ground water at three locations on the Rocketdyne site, and in
lower concentrations in wells to the north, south and east of the
hilltop lab.
The highest state reading was 19.2 parts per billion -- nearly
five times the allowable limit of 4 ppb -- at a monitoring well
at a gas station in Simi Valley. The readings were taken this
year.
State investigators could not determine the chemical's source,
but they noted that Rocketdyne is the nearest known location with
perchlorate contamination. Solid rocket fuel "is the main
source of perchlorate contamination found in ground water"
across the nation, they said.
Rocketdyne officials said there is no proof the chemical comes
from the lab, noting that perchlorate has not been detected in
springs in the undeveloped area around the site.
"The data from the state is very compelling and shows it's
not coming from Rocketdyne," said Art Lenox, an
environmental scientist at the lab. "But activists continue
to want to use the data to point fingers at Rocketdyne."
The company has tested wells of various depths around the lab's
perimeter, and no seepage was detected, Lenox said.
The perchlorate discovered in Simi Valley more likely came from
firecrackers, fertilizer or road flares , all of which contain the
chemical in concentrations high enough to trigger the findings,
he said.
The geology of the field lab, with its bedrock faults and
sandstone, would absorb contaminants and minimize migration,
Lenox said. What's more, he said, a large part of the work
conducted at Santa Susana involved kerosene or liquid oxygen, not
heavy rocket fuel containing perchlorate.
The closest structure on the lab site is about a mile south of
Simi Valley city limits and about 1 1/2 miles from the nearest
housing subdivision. Several contaminated wells are within 2 1/2
miles of the closest building at the rocket-testing site.
From January to August, state officials took water or soil
samples from 76 wells -- 68 shallow and eight deep -- 25 springs
and 30 drainage ditches between Rocketdyne and Simi Valley.
The state detected perchlorate in ground water less than 20 feet
below the surface in wells north of the field lab.
Perchlorate also was found this year south of the lab, near the
proposed Ahmanson Ranch housing development, and it was detected
in a well east of the site last year.
State officials will discuss their findings during a meeting
Wednesday at the Grand Vista Hotel in Simi Valley.
Rocketdyne conducted nuclear energy research at the lab for
decades until chemical and nuclear contamination was found in
1989. The lab is now undergoing a federally funded $186-million
cleanup, but rocket testing continues at the site.
*Perchlorate was introduced into the Lake Mead drinking water supply as a result of Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. and Pacific Engineering & Production Company of Nevada operations in Henderson. Pacific Engineering moved to Utah after its plant exploded in 1988.
In July 2001, officials measured perchlorate at the lake's intake at 8 parts per billion. But officials said later that pollution at the Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead was expected to be dramatically reduced once technology to remove perchlorate from groundwater that feeds both is improved.
*The Las Vegas Review-Journal contributed to this report.
Feds Agree to Help with San Bernardino County Perchlorate Cleanup
HOTSHEETS
RANCHO CUCAMONGA --The Department of Defense has agreed to help pay to clean up a rocket fuel ingredient that polluted the water supply in San Bernardino County.
For the first time, the department on Friday agreed to work with local water agencies and to commit funds to deal with perchlorate contamination that closed 20 wells in Rialto, Fontana and Colton.
No specific dollar figures were announced.
"It shows a willingness that is really new to the Inland Empire," said Cucamonga County Water District President Robert Neufeld, one of the five signatories.
The Inland Empire was a favorite site for defense contractors because of its open spaces and proximity to Los Angeles.
Perchlorate has been linked to damage to the thyroid -- and may be especially harmful to infants -- although there is debate about what constitutes dangerous levels of the pollutant.
Perchlorate has been found in 20 states and 329 drinking water sources in California since 1997, when the ability to detect low levels was perfected.
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Colorado River Taint Worries Some
Officials
Perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient, enters Lake Mead
near Las Vegas.
California is concerned about its
effect on drinking water.
By Miguel Bustillo
Times Staff Writer
02 February 2003
A toxic rocket fuel ingredient that is polluting the
Colorado River -- the main water source for millions of
Californians and most of the nation's winter lettuce -- may be
dangerous to public health even at extremely low levels, state
and federal environmental officials now believe.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California
Office of Environmental Health Assessment, which are
independently working to set the nation's first enforceable
regulations on ammonium perchlorate, are concluding from a number
of new studies that the substance could lead to health problems,
even in trace amounts.
Those findings present a serious environmental problem for the
Southwestern United States, because the entire lower Colorado
River is polluted with small amounts of perchlorate from a
now-closed Nevada rocket fuel factory.
California officials first discovered the contamination five
years ago, and an effort has been underway since then to stem the
pollutant's flow from a desert wash near the factory into Lake
Mead. But more than 500 pounds of perchlorate still enters the
river system every day, and it will be years before it is fully
flushed out.
No one is saying a few glasses of tap water pose an immediate
danger.
Environmental health scientists say there is an outside risk of
developing health problems from perchlorate, basing their
estimates on the assumption that a person would drink about two
liters of the slightly tainted water each day of a lifetime.
Nonetheless, environmental groups say perchlorate's presence in
the Colorado River raises questions about the safety of drinking
the river's water and of eating foods, such as lettuce, that are
grown with it.
Questions are thought to be particularly significant for pregnant
women and babies. Perchlorate is known to affect the production
of thyroid hormones , which are considered critical to brain
development, so fetuses and newborn children may face a greater
risk.
"The more we know about perchlorate, the more concerned we
get, because the science is pointing to low doses affecting brain
functions," said Gina Solomon, a health expert with the
Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group.
"The kind of things that low to moderate doses of
perchlorate might do include delays in things like language
acquisition, motor coordination," Solomon said.
In all, more than 15 million people, including those in the urban
expanses of Las Vegas and much of Southern California, depend on
drinking water from the lower Colorado River. Roughly 15% of
California's water supply comes from the river.
Water siphoned off to the casinos of Las Vegas contains 10 to 12
parts per billion of perchlorate, according to officials with the
Southern Nevada Water Authority. Water diverted downstream by the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is less
polluted, usually somewhere between 5 and 8 parts per billion. It
is subsequently blended with Northern California water before
being piped to Southern California consumers, reducing its
contamination to below detectable levels.
One part per billion is roughly equivalent to a grain of sand in
an Olympic-size swimming pool, according to the Metropolitan
Water District.
Perchlorate pollution is an unexpected byproduct of the race to
put a man in space and build bigger and better rockets during the
Cold War.
Defense contractors and the Pentagon do not dispute that it can
be harmful, but their interpretation of the data differs from
that of environmental officials. The contractors and military
authorities conclude that the contaminant is dangerous only in
higher concentrations.
"Let me make this perfectly clear. We think the
concentration in the Las Vegas Wash is not a health concern for
those drinking it," said Pat Corbett, director of
environmental affairs for Kerr-McGee Corp., which owns the former
perchlorate factory near Henderson, Nev. The Las Vegas Wash is
the desert streambed where the perchlorate pollution enters Lake
Mead in greatest concentration.
Using the defense industry's own data, however, the federal EPA
and California are arriving at far different conclusions.
The EPA has issued a preliminary public health goal of 1 part per
billion for perchlorate -- a number one-seventh the average
contamination now in the lower Colorado River. The number is also
one 200th of what the defense industry says is scientifically
sound.
California health officials have issued a draft public health
goal of 2 to 6 parts per billion for perchlorate. The state
expects to establish new regulations next year; the EPA estimates
it will take several more years to put federal standards in
place.
Most of the studies reviewed by the state and federal
environmental officials were paid for by the military and its
contractors, which have been cooperating for the last five years
with the government regulators in the effort to arrive at new
safety standards. But now the two sides find themselves at odds.
"We didn't really care" what the number considered safe
by regulators was, "as long as it was based on good
science," said Air Force Lt. Col. Dan Rogers, who has helped
lead the military's response to the perchlorate pollution problem
since 1997, and estimates that the Pentagon, NASA and defense
contractors have invested $22 million in studies.
"Unfortunately, some scientists disagree with EPA's
interpretation of the data," Rogers said.
Strict new state and federal perchlorate rules could cost defense
contractors and water agencies tens of millions of dollars, spent
to cleanse waters of pollution. Many of those involved predict
that taxpayers will ultimately foot the bill for a massive
cleanup.
One central question bearing on the cost is how much risk may
come from eating vegetables irrigated with
perchlorate-contaminated water. More than 1.4 million acres of
farmland are irrigated with Colorado River water, mostly in
California's Imperial Valley and the Yuma, Ariz., area. Together,
these areas grow more than 90% of the country's fresh lettuce
during winter months.
Though data remain limited, some recent studies have suggested
that perchlorate may collect in lettuce at higher concentrations
than it does in the water used to grow the plants, adding to the
concern about perchlorate in the river.
"We know perchlorate can attain high concentrations in
plants -- we know that," said Phil Smith, a toxicologist at
Texas Tech University who is conducting a study on perchlorate in
plants for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. What remains
unclear, Smith said, is whether perchlorate consumed by eating
vegetables has the same effect on people and animals as
perchlorate in drinking water.
Defense industry officials contend it is scientifically premature
to conclude that perchlorate concentrates in plants. They say
other research has even shown that some plants can naturally
break down perchlorate over time. They argue that a 1999 EPA test
of lettuce seedlings that found high concentrations of
perchlorate in the seedlings had been discounted by some
scientists because of the testing methods. The EPA is conducting
a second lettuce study and expects to release its findings within
weeks.
If perchlorate is shown to collect in vegetables and affect
people who eat them, the finding would have significant
consequences.
"It would mean that the problem of perchlorate is not
confined to people in the West who rely on this drinking water,
but the entire nation, which is eating this lettuce in the winter
months," said Bill Walker of the Environmental Working
Group, an organization that has sounded an alarm about
perchlorate for several years and is now doing its own lettuce
tests.
In addition to the Colorado River, the EPA has identified roughly
75 perchlorate pollution sites around the country.
In California, the San Gabriel Valley, the Inland Empire and the
Rancho Cordova area near Sacramento are all struggling to address
perchlorate pollution. In all three places, dozens of residents
near the polluted sites have alleged they developed health
ailments -- including thyroid problems and cancer -- from
exposure to perchlorate. The state Department of Health Services
is studying whether there is an increase in thyroid problems near
those areas.
Though perchlorate had been a public concern for years, it was
not until 1997 that the magnitude of the problem became clear.
That year, California health officials developed a new method to
detect the pollutant at levels far lower than previously
possible, and water officials discovered to their surprise that
contamination was far more widespread than first believed.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the
area's primary urban wholesaler, soon detected perchlorate deep
in its massive Colorado River Aqueduct, which pipes water 240
miles into Riverside County. It performed further tests and found
that pollution levels increased as testing moved upstream. The
sleuthing eventually pinned down the source of the contamination
as the Las Vegas Wash, a formerly seasonal stream that now flows
year-round with the treated waste water of Las Vegas. Tests
further up the stream found no perchlorate.
The discovery quickly triggered a response from the EPA, the
Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and Kerr-McGee, which
owned a nearby perchlorate plant that for years dumped tons of
the rocket fuel oxidizer directly into unlined lagoons.
The plant, which Kerr-McGee acquired through a merger in the late
1960s, was first converted to perchlorate manufacturing by the
Navy after World War II. It was closed in 1998, when Kerr-McGee
got out of the perchlorate business.
The current cleanup, overseen by Nevada and funded by the
company, started in 1998 and is showing signs of success,
according to state, EPA officials and the defense contractor.
Officials isolated an underground stream that was carrying
perchlorate pollution, and are now running 34 wells to pump out
the ground water before it reaches the Las Vegas Wash.
As a result, the contamination spilling into the wash has dropped
from an average of 900 to 1,000 pounds per day to 500 to 550
pounds, and recent gains suggest the numbers could go down
dramatically in coming months, said Todd Croft, the Nevada
official in charge of the cleanup.
Purging Lake Mead of perchlorate, however, is a far more
complicated matter. EPA officials speculate it could take decades
to fully wash out, even after the stream polluting it is cleaned
up.
"Lake Mead is a complex reservoir," said Kevin Mayer,
the EPA's point man on perchlorate. "It is not going to
flush like a bathtub."
*Perchlorate was introduced into the Lake Mead drinking water supply as a result of Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. and Pacific Engineering & Production Company of Nevada operations in Henderson. Pacific Engineering moved to Utah after its plant exploded in 1988.
In July 2001, officials measured perchlorate at the lake's intake at 8 parts per billion. But officials said later that pollution at the Las Vegas Wash and Lake Mead was expected to be dramatically reduced once technology to remove perchlorate from groundwater that feeds both is improved.
*The Las Vegas Review-Journal contributed to this report.
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Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times
Testing Set for Water in Valley
Chatsworth, West Hills Wells to be Checked for Perchlorate
By Rachel Uranga
Los Angeles Daily News Staff Writer
Wednesday, 23 April 2003
In response to residents' fear that the floor of the west San Fernando Valley could be contaminated with perchlorate -- a chemical linked to thyroid dysfunction -- scientists at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control will test wells in Chatsworth and the West Hills area, officials said Wednesday.
Next month, officials will test 20 groundwater-monitoring wells at DeVry West Hills, former site of Hughes Missile System Co.'s research and manufacturing plant. The testing will be broadened as access is gained to other monitoring sites.
"I don't think anyone should be nervous. I would ask them to be patient," said DTSC spokesman Ron Baker. "Using the scientific method, it will take us a while to figure out what's going on. ..."
The testing comes in response to complaints from activists who say perchlorate at the Santa Susana Field Lab -- which sits atop a hill dividing the San Fernando Valley from Simi Valley -- could have trickled down and permeated soils near their West Hills and Chatsworth homes.
Sites at the field lab have tested at 175 times the level of perchlorate considered safe by the California Department of Health Services.
"There's been concerns expressed by community members about impact on the east side (of the lab) and we are trying to address that concern," said Gerard Abrams, a senior engineer and geologist at the DTSC who is charged with the lab's cleanup.
Steve Lafflam, a spokesman for Boeing, which owns the former Rocketdyne site, said it is unlikely the chemical seeped from the lab site.
"I wouldn't anticipate seeing any results showing perchlorate has left our site. I don't think that's a reality or a possibility."
If the wells do yield perchlorate, Rocketdyne will be only one of several sources considered as a possible cause of the contamination, said David Bacharowski, assistant executive officer of groundwater remediation for the Regional Water Quality Control Board that is doing the testing.
Over the past five years, Boeing has monitored more than a dozen wells along the eastern edge of the lab site, as far as a mile and a half from the facility, Bacharowski said. Only one test site found perchlorate at the DHS level requiring action -- 4 parts per billion, he said.
Bonnie Klea, a West Hills resident who has sought action from the DTSC for years, said she is skeptical of Boeing's findings.
"I want to know if it's safe to have a backyard garden with fruit, and nobody has been able to answer that because nobody has tested down here," said Klea, a cancer survivor and former Rocketdyne employee.
Abrams said rainwater, which can carry perchlorate, does flow down from the eastern edge of the Rocketdyne site where for decades rocket testing and nuclear energy research was done -- until chemical and nuclear contamination was found on the site in 1989.
The rain flow emanates from an area called Happy Valley, where propellant and munitions testing had been conducted along with military flare research and production, Abrams said. The water falls down through Woolsey Canyon into Chatsworth and from Dayton Canyon into West Hills, but Abrams said the department has yet to test far beyond the grounds.
The Department of Water and Power, which supplies drinking water to Los Angeles, does not use water from the sites that will be monitored by the DTSC. The DWP does not pump drinking water west of Van Nuys Boulevard, though some private well users might.
In December, the DTSC found perchlorate at four times the accepted level in 18 shallow wells in Simi Valley. Officials have been unable to link the chemical to the Santa Susana lab site.
So far, the department has determined that at least one plume of perchlorate -- the length of two football fields -- exists in Happy Valley, on the lab's east side. The chemical has been detected 200 feet deep in the bedrock there.
Bill Walker, vice president of the Environmental Working Group's West Coast office, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit group focusing on toxics affecting communities, said the high level of perchlorate found at the lab site is worrisome.
"Look at the history of perchlorate plumes all over Southern California," he said. "It's a history of people being surprised because they thought it was contained in a different area.
"I can't state there is a clear danger," Walker said, "but I don't know how you can look at this site and say there is no danger."
Perchlorate, a white or colorless powder that easily dissolves in water, is a rocket and missile fuel byproduct that interrupts how the body processes iodine in the thyroid gland. It causes metabolic difficulties and developmental disorders. The chemical has been found to have been released in more than 22 states, often by defense contractors.
Felkins *ANTHOLOGY and *HOTSHEETS *Copyright Madeline Felkins 1997
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