Polluted Water Found Near Stringfellow : State Agency Dismisses Independent Study as Lacking ‘Credence’

Environmental activist Penny Newman, adding another chapter to her running feud with state officials, said Wednesday that an independent study found “extremely high levels” of a toxic chemical in the tap water of a law office near the Stringfellow Acid Pits.

State officials, however, dismissed the study, saying that the laboratory hired by the law firm to perform it was not certified in California to test drinking water.

Newman said an analysis of tap water from the office of Klein, Wegis & Duggan conducted by National Testing Standards Inc. of Anaheim in April, turned up perchloroethelyne in levels of 593 parts per billion.

That would be one of the highest results ever found in drinking water in California, state water experts said.

“I hope this is an error,” Newman said at a meeting of the Stringfellow Advisory Committee. “But even it is, people have a right to know a test came in with these high levels.”

Chet Anderson, regional sanitary engineer for the state Department of Health Resources, said, “In our opinion the results are invalid” because the test was “not done by a laboratory we have credence in.”

National Testing Standards President Lewis West refused to comment except to say that “I stand behind our work.”

Anderson said he first learned of the situation on Monday when officials at the Glen Avon Heights Mutual Water Co.--the source of the tap water--alerted the state agency about the findings.

The agency conducted its own tests of water drawn from Glen Avon wells and from tap water taken from an office next door to the law office on Tuesday afternoon. “We found absolutely nothing,” Anderson said.

Nonetheless, Anderson said the agency next week will test additional samples of tap water from throughout the area, including the law office.

Meanwhile, “Our phones are probably ringing off the hook,” said Milton Aust, general manager of the Glen Avon water district, which serves about 900 accounts in the area. Newman’s assertions, he added, were “unverified” and a “real disservice to our customers.”

“I knew it would cause an uproar,” Newman said. “I’d just like to have more testing done. It is the only way to answer everyone’s questions.”