Link to Radioactive Water Disputed : Stringfellow Pits Not Source of Hazard, State Report Says

State officials announced Friday that the abandoned Stringfellow acid pits are not the source of elevated levels of radioactivity in the ground water of this Riverside County community.

The radioactivity, first detected in ground water samples in May, 1984, is instead from naturally occurring formations found throughout the area, state Department of Health officials reported.

The report also said, however, that high levels of radiation detected at the Stringfellow site, a few miles north of the community, are caused by the interaction of acids leaking from the toxic waste pits with the natural uranium in soil and rock formations nearby.

Inquiry by State

About 400 families have been provided bottled drinking water by the state since June, 1984, after elevated levels of radiation were discovered in wells in the area. The state began an investigation to determine the cause of the contamination.

Results of the investigation released Friday suggested that the radiation in the ground water does not originate at the toxic waste pits.

“The Stringfellow site is not the source of elevated levels of radioactivity in the ground water of Glen Avon,” the report said. “The radioactivity, primarily uranium, is naturally occurring and comes from the granite rock found throughout the area.

“Elevated levels of radioactivity at the Stringfellow site are also determined to be naturally occurring and are due to a leaching of native uranium from soils and rocks by the acid wastes disposed at the site.”

Tests of contamination at the dump site and a contaminated plume spreading away from it showed that radioactive elements migrated only a short distance and then fell off below detectable levels, the officials said.

Path of Contamination

“Chemical contaminants, on the other hand, clearly follow a path through the site and canyon below to the community,” said a Department of Health Services spokeswoman, Marcia Murphy.

Still, four of the 200 private wells tested in the contaminated area, about eight miles west of Riverside, exceeded state “correction action levels” of 40 picocuries per liter and were unsafe for drinking.

A picocuri is one-trillionth of a curi--the standard unit used in measuring radioactivity.

David Spath, senior sanitary engineer for the department, said 48 of the wells sampled showed levels between 10 and 40 picocuries per liter with most of the remainder showing less than 10 picocuries. Ten picocuries per liter is the maximum concentration recommended for long-term human consumption.

At levels of less than 40 picocuries, Spath said, there is no health hazard to residents who use the water for bathing, irrigation or laundry.

Reaction From Resident

In addition to the contamination of private wells, water supplied the Feldspar Gardens Mutual Water Company also exceeds state “health advisory levels” for uranium of 10 picocuries per liter, officials said.

The report brought a sharp reaction from Penny Newman, the Glen Avon resident who has spearheaded the local effort to clean up Stringfellow.

Newman accused state officials of being deceptive by announcing that uranium leached from the surrounding soil and not the Stringfellow site itself was responsible for the high levels of radioactivity.

“Stringfellow is still responsible,” she said.

In October, Gov. George Deukmejian signed a bill allocating funds to provide a permanent alternative source of drinking water to residents now getting bottled water. The new water hookups are expected to begin by March 15, and should be completed by the end of the year.

State officials began their study of the radioactivity in the Glen Avon area and the Stringfellow site in May, 1984, after a test of ground water showed unusually high levels of contamination in private well water.

The Stringfellow site is about a half mile north of the Pomona Freeway at the end of Pyrite Road. From 1956 until it was closed in 1972, Stringfellow was a licensed toxic waste dump where 35 million gallons of hazardous materials were disposed.