JPL and Water Treatment Facility
Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s spokesman’s claim that it funded construction of a water treatment plant to clean up Pasadena’s contaminated drinking water (“Arroyo Cleanup Gets Boost,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 22) lacks sincerity and is also a slap in the face of 4,100 Altadena families.
The fact is that ground water was contaminated by the dumping of dangerous chemicals on JPL property. The lab consented to financing the Arroyo Seco Treatment Plant only after Pasadena rattled its legal saber.
The Lincoln Avenue Water Co. provides water service in West Altadena and uses the same ground water source as Pasadena. Yet, JPL refused cleanup assistance to this community, betting that a little mutual water company with limited resources wouldn’t undertake the kind of time-consuming and expensive legal challenge Pasadena threatened. Well, the lab was right--then.
But that was then and now is now.
Lincoln Avenue this year installed a $250,000, state-of-the-art water treatment plant to clean up JPL’s mess. The company is weighing its legal options and has the added incentive of recovering its consumers’ investment in the plant.
WILTON A. CLARKE Sr.
President
Lincoln Avenue Water Company
Altadena
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