$2.5-Million Water Treatment Plant OKd

Los Angeles water officials approved a construction contract Thursday for a $2.5-million treatment plant in North Hollywood that will purge ground water of toxic solvents.

The Board of Water and Power Commissioners, which oversees the Department of Water and Power, chose R.L. Hartley of Burbank to install the experimental system, which will extract and treat about 2,000 gallons per minute of ground water tainted by trichloroethylene, or TCE, a solvent linked to cancer in animal studies.

The system, which will be installed adjacent to existing city water supply wells under electrical transmission lines near Vanowen and Camelia streets, will use a combination of hydrogen peroxide and ozone to break down contaminants into harmless byproducts--carbon dioxide, water and chloride ions.

The system, scheduled to begin operating in January, will be the second pilot treatment system built by the DWP. The other is an aeration treatment plant on Vose Street in North Hollywood.

Well fields in North Hollywood, Burbank and Glendale have been designated federal Superfund sites because of chemical pollution of ground water. Eventually, big cleanup systems will be installed. In the meantime, utilities have kept water supplies within health standards by shutting down the most tainted wells and blending water from less tainted wells with fresh supplies.