3rd Cleanup System Seen for Tainted Water Wells

The federal Superfund cleanup of Valley ground water, which will involve treatment plants in North Hollywood and Burbank, could also mean a third treatment system for Glendale and Los Angeles drinking-water wells near Griffith Park, officials said Tuesday.

Patti Cleary, an environmental scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said a treatment system in the downstream area may be the logical next step in purging chemical pollutants from the ground water tapped by Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale and the Crescenta Valley County Water District.

Containing traces of solvents--principally trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE)--the ground water flows northwest to southeast through well fields in North Hollywood and Burbank to areas of Glendale and Los Angeles near the Los Angeles River.

By July, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is to start operating an aeration tower in North Hollywood to cleanse some of the water and slow its migration toward Burbank and Glendale. The $2.5-million aeration tower will treat 2,000 gallons of water a minute by causing the solvents to evaporate.

EPA and local officials have said the second phase of the cleanup, a Burbank treatment plant much larger and more expensive than the North Hollywood one, could be operating by 1989 or 1990.

Feasibility Study

Cleary and Mike Hopkins, water services director for Glendale, said a feasibility study for the third treatment plant may begin in the next few months.

At a meeting Tuesday in Los Angeles, Cleary also told local officials that the Valley cleanup will not be slowed by a widely publicized Superfund contracting problem. The EPA discovered that CH2M Hill, a key engineering contractor, is engaged at so many of the country’s 951 Superfund sites that it will be unable to meet work schedules. However, CH2M has no direct role in the Valley cleanup, Cleary said.

Since the well pollution was discovered in 1979, contamination has increased and spread to more wells. Of 112 Valley public water wells, more than half exceed health guidelines for TCE or PCE, suspected to cause cancer after long-term, regular exposure. The most polluted wells have been shut, and water from others is blended with clean supplies to meet health standards.

Cleary said the plume of polluted ground water is larger than previously thought, causing officials to consider a much bigger and more costly treatment plant for Burbank than the one in North Hollywood. She said that, to effectively contain the underground plume, the Burbank plant may have to pump up to 16,000 gallons per minute--more than the city uses. If this much water were pumped, much of it would have to be re-injected into the ground or supplied to Glendale and Los Angeles.

Even with the Burbank plant, Hopkins said, the third plant will be needed to deal with contamination downstream.

So far, the EPA has committed $12 million to the Valley Superfund cleanup.

Separately, some large area companies--including Lockheed in Burbank, Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, and Mepco/Centralab near Griffith Park--soon will begin treating water from under their plants that was polluted by tank leaks or spills.