Water-Treatment Plant in Burbank Scheduled to Reopen

A Burbank water-treatment plant, closed by the state as a threat to the purity of municipal water supplies, will resume operations in December, according to government officials.

State water experts idled the facility in December over concerns that one of its holding tanks could mix high concentrations of carcinogenic chemicals with water being treated from contaminated wells.

After weeks of discussions between Lockheed Martin and government agencies--including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Health Services and the city of Burbank--the parties tentatively approved plans to run water through what a Lockheed Martin executive called triple treatment.

If all goes as planned, the facility should be back on line sometime early next month, according to Lockheed Martin and various government agencies.

“It has taken longer than we expected,” said EPA Western Section Chief David Seter. “But since the primary goal is to make sure the drinking water is safe, that was time well spent.”

Lockheed and other companies agreed in 1992 to pay tens of millions of dollars to clean the contaminated ground water tainted by chemicals seeping into the soil during decades of defense manufacturing.

As part of the settlement, the company constructed the plant just south of Burbank Airport.

Two years after the plant was up and running, state drinking water experts contended that the facility’s design was flawed. The allegation surfaced as Lockheed applied for a state permit to expand its cleansing capacity from 6,000 to 9,000 gallons of water a minute.

Burbank officials complained they were caught in a classic bureaucratic struggle, forcing them to import water at a cost of $300,000 a month while putting them in the awkward position of having to consider water-rate increases.

Lockheed also expressed frustration with the decision, insisting the company was making every effort to cooperate with the state but denying the plant design was a threat to public health.

“This is not a public health issue,” said Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Gail Rymer. “This has been a situation where there has been a shift in policy within the state Department of Health.”

The water being delivered from the system always met clean drinking water standards, she said. There was no risk to Burbank residents.

Assistant Burbank City Manager Steve Helvey agreed. “Drinking water in Burbank has always been safe,” he said. “The design improvements at the plant will ensure the high quality of our drinking water long into the future.”

But state officials have been firm in their insistence there were flaws in a holding tank that extracts chemical wastes from well water through a carbon filtration process.

Because of those problems, chemicals removed from the well water and stored in a facility known as Tank 600 were pumped into the main treatment plant and mixed into the incoming water supply, according to Gary Yamamoto, regional chief for the state Department of Health Services Division of Drinking Water.

The process created very high concentrations of carcinogens, such as perchlorethylene and trichlorethelyne, which were pumped back through the system for cleansing. State officials said other chemicals they had not been able to identify were also present.

By taking additional steps to treat the water, government officials said they will solve any problems and the facility can resume operations.