Torres’ Water Cleanup Plan Backed : Pollution: Congressman wants a local agency to oversee the effort and businesses to voluntarily fund it.

A group of business owners and water officials reacted favorably this week to a congressman’s plan to create a local agency to administer the cleanup of the polluted San Gabriel Ground Water Basin.

The San Gabriel Basin Demonstration Project, proposed by Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-La Puente) calls for local businesses to voluntarily fund 80% of the cleanup cost, estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The remaining 20% would come from federal and state funds.

Torres outlined his plan Monday at a meeting with local politicians, business owners and water officials in Baldwin Park, one of the most contaminated areas in the valley. He introduced the legislation Aug. 2.

Under the bill, businesses would pay into a cleanup fund according to a formula based on their type of business, proximity to known contaminated wells and yearly gross revenue. Payment could be made over time.

“We feel this is a good start,” said Ronde Winkler, political chairwoman of the Property Owner’s Assn. in South El Monte, another severely contaminated area. “This is something we have needed for years, and it’s about time somebody came up with a game plan.”

Torres has said he is convinced that the valley’s business community can complete the cleanup faster, and at a lower cost, than the federal government’s Superfund, which is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency.

In 1984, federal officials placed the San Gabriel Basin on the Superfund list of top environmental problems in the nation.

Torres’s bill would place cleanup decisions in the hands of an independent agency of local water officials to be established by the state. In September, the Legislature defeated a bill to create such an agency.

Torres hopes that his bill will eliminate some of the unpopular aspects of the EPA approach of investigating the source of pollutants and fining those judged responsible. Critics argue that large businesses are encouraged to sue lesser contaminators, including small businesses and homeowners, to recoup some of their costs.

Under the Torres plan, once a business has paid into the cleanup fund, it would no longer be liable for future costs and could not sue other businesses to regain its original costs.

The Superfund plan would not be abolished, however. Businesses that did not participate in the voluntary program would be subject to EPA fines.

“The water does not get cleaned up that way,” said Carol Montano, a San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District board member. “Everything gets mired in the courts.” Under the Torres plan, she said, “we get things moving and we won’t have to wait until the year 2000.”

Anthony Fellow, president of the Upper San Gabriel Valley Water District, said he supports the plan and hopes that it will lead to the basin’s use as a water storage facility to help combat the drought. Right now, he said, the basin is too contaminated for such a use.

Environmental groups are taking a wait-and-see attitude. Maxine Leichter, head of the water quality committee of the Sierra Club’s Angeles Chapter, said the group appreciates Torres’ efforts but has not decided whether to endorse the plan.