San Martin - South County residents showed little interest last week in the first public hearing of a draft clean-up order to Olin Corporation, a road-flare manufacturer responsible for groundwater contamination stretching from Morgan Hill to Gilroy.
"It just felt like they were just doing more paperwork instead of getting (the water treatment) done and over with," said east Gilroy resident Lori Vicira, one of a handful of residents who attended a Friday meeting of the Perchlorate Community Advisory Group at the San Martin Lions Club.
And while Vicira joked that the session "was for show," she remains frustrated because she has not been able to bring herself to drink or cook with tap water since 2003, when she found out that her local well was contaminated with perchlorate. The salt byproduct of Olin's road-flare manufacturing processes has spread in a 10-mile plume southeast from the company's Tennant Avenue plant.
The company has spent four years working on - and at times struggling against - clean-up goals endorsed by regional water regulators. The absence of scientific consensus on the health threat posed by perchlorate, which in high enough doses can cause thyroid dysfunction, and the difficulty in pinpointing the sources of the salt have complicated the process of restoring the region's groundwater.
The draft order discussed Friday offered little new in the perchlorate saga. The order, which was delayed in its release by several weeks by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, formalizes long-term clean-up strategies the company has already started. If ratified in its current form by the agency's board of directors in December, the order would also require Olin to clean groundwater to meet public health goals set by the state. The company has argued against a mandate to meet the public health goal, claiming that local mushroom farms and other sources of potential contamination have contributed to "background levels" of perchlorate.
"The water board position is that unless they have evidence that other sources are contributing, we have to assume the contamination originated from the Olin site," said Hector Hernandez, an engineer with the water board.
Olin produced signal flares from 1956 to 1995 on the 13-acre property located at 425 Tennant Ave. in Morgan Hill. In 2000, Olin officials first reported finding perchlorate at the site during a routine inspection as part of the company's efforts to sell the land. The contamination is believed to have leaked into the ground from an evaporation pond, from on-site incineration of flares, and accidental spills, according to the draft clean up report.
The company has been tasked with cleaning groundwater where perchlorate concentrations are at, or above, 6 parts per billion - about a teaspoon of water in an Olympic size swimming pool. Currently, 16 wells in Morgan Hill are being treated for perchlorate, according Santa Clara Valley Water District Senior Project Manager Tracy Hemmeter.
Hernandez said it may take 15 to 20 years for Olin to achieve their water quality objectives.
"I'm pleased that we're continuing to move forward finally," said Sylvia Hamilton, chairwoman of the PCAG task force monitoring clean up. "We've been working on this long-term clean up phase. The last four years have been on the analysis of this issue and gathering data and now (Olin) is stepping up to the plate and taking some responsibility."
On Dec. 7, the water board will meet at its San Luis Obispo headquarters to hold a final public hearing on the draft order before voting on final approval. The public has until Nov. 2 to submit written comments on the draft Clean Up and Abatement Order. Comments can be mailed to the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board at 895 Aerovista Place, Suite 101, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401.
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