Water Well Shut Down After State Tests Show Presence of Chemical

State health authorities have shut down a well that supplied drinking water to a small area of north Orange County after finding it contaminated with a cancer-causing chemical, officials said Monday.

Bob Merryman, director of environmental health for the Orange County Health Care Agency, said the state Department of Health Services ordered the well closed after tests showed that the water supply contained high levels of perchloroethylene, or PCE.

The well, known as the Ballad Well, at 6492 Ballad Drive in Anaheim was shut down June 3.

The chemical PCE is commonly used as an industrial solvent in the dry-cleaning industry and is listed under the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 as a chemical known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.

The well, owned by the Southern California Water Co., was a secondary well used on a limited basis, its water mixed with that of a primary well nearby, Merryman said. It helped supply water to residences in two unincorporated areas in north Orange County, including one pocket of homes north of Orangethorpe Avenue and just a few blocks southeast of Esperanza High School, and another residential area west of the Imperial Highway and north of Esperanza Road.

“It did not pose a significant threat to health because the water (from the Ballad Well) was mixed with that from Concerto,” Merryman said. “Consumers probably did not receive any water that exceeded the state action level.”

State regulations allow a level of 4 parts per billion of PCE in drinking water. Tests conducted during a two-week period in May showed levels of 6.8 parts per billion in one sampling and 7.7 parts per billion in a second sampling.

Merryman said the contamination of the well occurred sometime between December, 1987, and May. In December, the PCE level was well below the state level.

The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board will now decide what to do with the well, which was closed June 3. Merryman said that the source of the contamination is not known and that it may be a while before the well is cleaned up.

Merryman said the state Water Resources Control Board will investigate the contamination. In the meantime, water will be supplied from other surrounding wells, which he said were not contaminated.