House OKs $85 Million to Clean Up Tainted Water

Acting to protect the water supply for an estimated 3 million Los Angeles County residents, the House on Tuesday approved spending $85 million to help clean up polluted ground water in the San Gabriel Valley and surrounding areas.

The legislation, sent to the Senate on a voice vote, is a key part of a $300-million effort by government and industry to solve a two-decade-old problem that has created a water supply crisis in the San Gabriel Valley.

The measure’s supporters said it is critically needed for two purposes--to clean up the vast San Gabriel Basin aquifer, which serves 1.4 million residents, and to prevent further spread of the contamination into the Central Basin, which serves more than 2 million residents stretching from Montebello and Pico Rivera to Long Beach.

“We are very, very excited that the bill is making this kind of progress,” Carol Williams, executive secretary of the San Gabriel Valley Water Assn., which represents water providers, said by telephone from Azusa after the House vote. Senate approval is expected, though it is uncertain when the bill will come to the floor in the upper house.

The legislation, introduced by Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas) and supported by a bipartisan group of Los Angeles-area House members, not only allots $85 million for the cleanup effort but also provides an additional $25 million for research into the removal of perchlorates, a toxic component of rocket fuel that has been found in California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas ground water.

Perchlorates are a major source of the contamination in the San Gabriel Valley and have been a problem in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) persuaded his colleagues to include his district for testing new methods of removing perchlorates, securing $7 million of the $25 million from the research fund for cleaning up Santa Clarita ground water wells.

Dreier said that, although the Army Corps of Engineers and the White House have appeared “less than enthusiastic” about the measure, “I am convinced that the president will want to join this strong bipartisan coalition and lend his support for this very important measure.”

The corps objected to being given responsibility under the legislation for implementing the cleanup, contending that the Environmental Protection Agency is better suited for the job. But corps spokesman Homer Perkins said that, if the bill is signed, “we’ll follow the wishes of Congress.”

The contamination “definitely [has] had a significant impact on the cost of water” to consumers, Williams said. It has forced agencies to import Colorado River water, at about $450 an acre-foot, to replace ground water, which had cost as little as $50 an acre-foot.

The San Gabriel aquifer was named the nation’s largest ground water Superfund site in 1984, according to local water officials. Superfund listing is used to designate the nation’s most polluted sites and allows the EPA to sue polluters for cleanup costs.

But supporters of Dreier’s bill said the federal government should help pay for the cleanup because perchlorates entered the soil in the 1940s and ‘50s from the operations of--some now defunct--defense contractors.

“I do think that those that are responsible for dumping this spent rocket fuel should be responsible” for paying for the cleanup, Dreier told his House colleagues. “Unfortunately, many of those businesses are no longer in operation.”

Eleven businesses agreed last fall to chip in $200 million for the cleanup. The EPA is negotiating with several other firms named as potentially responsible for the perchlorates and other contaminants, such as solvents used in industry.