Pollution Found in Well at Bermite Plant Site

A cancer-causing chemical leaking from the former site of the Bermite ordinance plant in Saugus has contaminated some ground water, but state officials said Wednesday that there is no evidence it has tainted drinking supplies.

The chemical, trichloroethylene, or TCE, was found in a test well on the Bermite property in April, said Alan Sorsher, associate engineer with the state Department of Health Services.

State officials said tests conducted by Wittaker Corp., which owns the property, found TCE at 7.2 parts per million, more than 1,000 times higher than the levels allowed by the state.

Sorsher said, however, that there was no evidence that TCE had contaminated drinking water at nearby wells. “We don’t feel there is any cause for alarm at this point,” he said. “We’re continuing to assess the situation. We’re just glad we caught it when we did.”

The well closest to the Bermite site used for drinking water is operated by the Santa Clarita Water Company and is about a mile away, Sorsher said. Although the contamination will flow slowly in the direction of the public well, Sorsher said a Whittaker Corp. plan to remove the contaminated water and purify it should prevent the chemical from spreading to drinking supplies.

Bermite, a site for the production of military explosives since 1906, was closed in 1987 because of dwindling demands for the plant’s products and the increasing value of Santa Clarita land. The source of the ground-water contamination was a pool that had been filled with industrial solvents used to degrease equipment. The pool was taken out of operation and emptied about six years ago, Sorsher said.

The ground water below the pool had been monitored for contamination since October, 1988, and as late as January tests conducted by both the state and Wittaker Corp. had failed to detect any traces of the chemical, Sorsher said.

In April, Whittaker Corp. detected a TCE level of 4.8 p.p.m. at a 600-foot deep test well near the pool. State law allows TCE at only five parts per billion. A second test in mid-May found a reading 7.2 p.p.m. and the state was notified, Sorsher said.

Health officials said they were not notified of the contamination until May 19 because it took a month to process the test results. The state released the findings in response to press inquiries.

Bill Manetta, president of the Santa Clarita Water Company, said tests at the well found no TCE.

The test did find 1.3 p.p.b. of trichloroethane, or TCA, an industrial solvent considered to be much less dangerous than TCE, Manetta said. The maximum level of TCA allowed by the state is 200 p.p.b.

Manetta said the company’s water is “absolutely safe.” New tests will be conducted this week or next and the tests will be repeated again in three months, he said.

Bermite has been ordered to drill two additional wells 50 to 100 feet from the present test well see how far the toxic chemical has traveled in the ground-water system, state officials said. Water in the underground aquifer moves at the rate of a few inches a day.

Whittaker has also pumped out more than 20,000 gallons of ground water in an attempt to stop the spread of the toxic chemical, Sorsher said.

Representatives of Newhall County Water were also notified of the contamination, but their wells were not considered to be in danger since they are not in the path of the contaminated water’s underground flow, state officials said.