State Funds Sought for San Gabriel Valley Basin Cleanup

Citing the threat of drought and earthquakes to Southern California water supplies, officials last week urged more state funding to complete cleanup of large portions of the San Gabriel Valley Basin that serves more than 1 million people.

Since it was established in 1993 to oversee cleanup operations, the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority has received only about $8 million from the state of the $560 million collected for water treatment and remediation efforts, officials said. Most of the money has come from the federal government and companies responsible for polluting the basin.

During an environmental forum last week at Cal State L.A., officials from the water quality authority, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency joined with other agencies and local water providers to discuss the ongoing cleanup. Officials from the water authority estimate that about $400 million will be needed over the next three decades to finish the job.

“The reality is we need the state to step up and help us,” said Gabriel Monares, director of resource development for the water authority. “We’re not the sexiest issue, but we’re an important issue.”

The water authority is trying to persuade the state Legislature to earmark $250 million from this year’s budget surplus to complete the work.

During and after World War II, industrial solvents and chemicals from local defense plants and other heavy industry penetrated the soil and contaminated groundwater under Alhambra, Baldwin Park, Irwindale and other parts of the valley. The basin is part of a massive aquifer serving the region.

The EPA designated four areas of the valley as Superfund sites in 1984, making them eligible for federal funds. But cleanup costs skyrocketed in 1997 when perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel, was discovered.

In 2002, several of the companies responsible for contamination agreed as part of a legal settlement to pay $250 million toward cleanup. But Monares said it’s imperative for the state to help ensure that the work is completed and that it is made a high priority.

He noted that officials failed to heed warnings of New Orleans’ aging levees until it was too late. In light of the Hurricane Katrina disaster there, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has lobbied unsuccessfully for federal disaster aid to shore up earthquake-prone levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where nearly two-thirds of the state’s water flows.

Water authority officials said they haven’t received any state grants or bond money for the San Gabriel Valley cleanup project since 1999.

Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-El Monte), who sponsored the forum, said she arranged the meeting to “get locals engaged” on an issue often overlooked by officials more focused on financing other infrastructure projects.

“There is an urgency for the state to chime in,” Solis said.

Bob Kuhn, chairman of the water quality authority, said his agency has been pushing for years for money from the state. If the $418 million needed to complete the cleanup does not come from the state or other sources, he said, the cost would shift to water customers.