California says county covered up Cold War contaminant perchlorate

[Guest guest]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/09/12/fina

ncial1014EDT0060.DTL

California says county covered up Cold War contaminant

PETER WALDMAN, The Wall Street Journal Thursday, September 12, 2002

(09-12) 07:14 PDT (AP) --

State and local regulators in Southern California are jump-starting efforts

to clean up an obscure water pollutant from the Cold War that is turning up

in drinking water across the country.

The contaminant, perchlorate, has been used as an oxidizer in rockets,

munitions and fireworks since the 1950s. Today, a task force of regulators

plans to launch its most assertive action yet, publicly accusing the

government of San Bernardino County of grossly mishandling a landfill site

suspected of harboring massive quantities of perchlorate left over from

civilian and military explosives operations once located on the site.

A salt with similar characteristics to nitrate, perchlorate wasn't

considered very dangerous to humans until a decade ago, when the

Environmental Protection Agency warned that it was known to disrupt the

functioning of the thyroid gland in people who consumed it. Over the years,

defense facilities from Los Angeles to Cape Cod discharged huge amounts of

perchlorate onto the ground, contaminating groundwater in many places where

it was handled, EPA experts say.

Data are still emerging on exactly how much of a public-health threat

perchlorate contamination poses. But in laboratory tests on animals, as well

as in at least two epidemiological studies of people, the EPA has found a

link between perchlorate and thyroid impairment, posing a severe risk to

normal development. High levels of perchlorate have been found in the

Colorado River in Nevada, Arizona and California, as well as in parts of

Texas, Arkansas, Alabama and Cape Cod in Massachusetts, among other places,

the EPA says.

Earlier this year, the EPA proposed a maximum containment level of

perchlorate in drinking water of one part per billion, a level the defense

industry and the Pentagon have argued is unnecessarily strict and too costly

to meet. Eight states have set their own provisional containment levels for

perchlorate, ranging from one to 18 parts per billion. California's current

" action level " is 4 parts per billion.

Perchlorate contamination is especially acute in San Bernardino County, the

so-called Inland Empire east of Los Angeles. Defense contractors and others

have produced, tested and stored explosive materials there on the desert's

edge for decades. Over the past two years, perchlorate has been detected in

dozens of places in the area's groundwater, causing the closing of 17

drinking wells so far and threatening the drought-stricken area with a

severe water shortage.

Several wells have registered levels in the hundreds of parts per billion.

" The real fear here is what lies next, " says attorney Barry Groveman,

chairman of the regulatory task force.

San Bernardino County purchased the 96-acre site in 1993 for $5 million,

agreeing at the time to indemnify the seller for all future pollution

claims. The seller had disclosed " that the property was used, for many

years, to store and manufacture fireworks and explosives for military and

civilian uses, " according to a real-estate agreement the county signed

before the purchase.

In 1997, when perchlorate started showing up in groundwater at other defense

sites around the country, it was discovered at and adjacent to the San

Bernardino landfill, leading to suspicions that the dump was the source. Two

years later, without any concerted investigation and cleanup effort for

perchlorate, the county buried nearly the entire site under as much as 100

feet of dirt, dug out of a giant hole nearby to expand the landfill

operations. Since the soil was added, perchlorate levels have spiked much

higher in nearby wells.

Buried under the dirt are the sites of more than a dozen old explosive

bunkers and other munitions operations, including a hazardous-waste facility

once operated by a defunct company called Broco Inc. On Monday, California's

Department of Toxic Substances Control, a member of the area's perchlorate

task force, ordered San Bernardino County to devise a " closure plan " for the

buried Broco site within 60 days. The Broco plot, the agency said, was never

properly cleaned.

" There seems to be an increase in perchlorate contamination in the area and

we're not sure why, " says Borzelleri, chief deputy director of the

state toxic-substances control agency, based in Sacramento.

One theory, Mr. Borzelleri says, based on other sites, is that the weight of

the 5.8 million cubic yards of dirt the county used to cover the landfill

site may be causing the ground to compress, possibly pressing more

perchlorate out of the soil. Augmenting this theory is the presence at the

site of a concrete manufacturer, which uses lots of water to wash down sand

and gravel -- water that drains into the groundwater and can leach

perchlorate along with it, some task-force members say.

The 17 wells closed so far belong to four water utilities, which together

provide water to some 400,000 residents. They serve the Southern California

areas of Rialto, Colton, West San Bernardino and Fontana in San Bernardino

County.

County officials bristle at the notion that they have contributed to the

area's perchlorate problem and say the contaminant's source remains far from

clear. In the search for answers, the county has spent $1 million in recent

months attempting to track the plume, they say. " The task force is being

very aggressive, but we've got to make sure whose problem this really is

before we pony up money to solve it, " says Wulfman, head of solid

waste management for the county.

Mr. Wulfman says the county in no way intended to cover up hazardous

waste -- literally or figuratively. It buried the site in question merely

because that was a convenient place to store dirt, he says. The soil may

actually be helping to shield possible contaminants from rainwater, he adds.

As for California's closure order for the Broco land, Mr. Wulfman says the

county is retrieving records from the environmental contractor that worked

on the parcel and isn't sure what cleanup was performed.

" We're not seeing any of these potentially responsible parties stepping up

to the plate, " says Bradley Baxter, director of public works for the city of

Rialto. " This could stop development cold in our city. "

Slow Seep

* 1993 San Berardino County, Calif., pays $5 million to expand its dump,

despite disclosed presence of toxic substances

* 1997 Perchlorate is found in groundwater

* 1998 The city of Rialto permits the dump to cover the expansion area with

new soil, as long as all contaminants are cleaned up

* 2001-2002 Perchlorate migrates into groundwater, causing more than 17

drinking-water wells to close

Source: Inland Empire Perchlorate Regulatory Task Force