SAN GABRIEL VALLEY : 44 Firms to Pay for Probe of Ground Water Pollution

Federal environmental officials have reached an agreement with 44 companies to investigate the extent of ground water pollution in the severely contaminated Puente Basin in the eastern San Gabriel Valley.

The firms, including TRW Inc., United Technologies and BDP, a subsidiary of Carrier Corp., have committed to paying for the investigation, which is estimated to cost from $2.5 million to $4 million and take one year to complete.

“This is a good step forward,” said Mark Klaiman, assistant regional counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco.

Federal officials put the entire San Gabriel Basin on its Superfund list of cleanup priorities in 1984, but only recently has much action been taken to remedy the pollution caused by solvents and degreasing agents that seeped into the water table.