Water Supply Polluters Miss Deadline for San Gabriel Valley Cleanup Deal

Companies held responsible for contaminating parts of the San Gabriel Valley’s underground drinking water supply have missed the federal deadline for a cleanup agreement, prompting calls for fines against them.

Participants said that negotiations among the companies, water suppliers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are getting close to an agreement on the estimated $200-million cleanup of industrial solvents from water beneath Azusa, Irwindale and Baldwin Park. But the sides did not reach a resolution by that federal agency’s deadline of midnight Monday.

The main obstacle involves future liability issues.

On Tuesday, the state agency overseeing the San Gabriel water basin called on the EPA to fine the 20 polluters. “The EPA should start sanctioning or fining these companies,” said Bob Kuhn, chairman of the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority. “It is time to get serious. It is time for the EPA to hold their feet to the fire.”

The water quality authority argues that by failing to meet the deadline, the responsible polluters have violated an EPA order to clean up the contamination.

According to federal statues, the EPA can fine each of the polluting companies $27,500 a day.

But Wayne Praskins, a regional EPA manager, said Tuesday that the EPA would not start those fines because progress has been made on determining how much each firm should pay for the overall cleanup. He said the companies have begun designing a treatment plant and spent $15 million in the last year on such planning and tests.

Industrial solvents were first discovered 22 years ago in the 160 square miles of ground water beneath the San Gabriel Valley. The water under Azusa, Baldwin Park and Irwindale is the most badly tainted. Five pockets of that ground water were declared a Superfund site by the EPA in 1984, giving it special priority for cleanup and possible federal funds.

Officials of the companies held responsible said that fines would not help the negotiations. “We are continuing to talk and we believe we are very close,” said Rosemary Younts, senior vice president of communications for GenCorp Inc., considered the largest polluter. “We are working every minute of the day to get a resolution.”

Water providers, however, say the polluters have repeatedly blown deadlines to sign an agreement.

Mike Whitehead, president of the San Gabriel Valley Water Co., said he believed an agreement was in hand last week, but that it is now hung up on insurance issues. He also urged the EPA to start fining the companies.

The cost of cleaning up the area soared in 1997, when perchlorate--a hazardous byproduct of rocket fuel--was also detected and linked to GenCorp’s Aerojet plant in Azusa.

Because perchlorate and other possible carcinogens have knocked 31 wells in the San Gabriel Valley out of action, officials said water companies have been forced to import Colorado River water, which costs far more than ground water.

Rep. Hilda Solis (D-La Puente) said it appears that the various parties are coming together for the first time. “We need to work together to get these polluters to pay for the cleanup,” she said. “We don’t need money to go to litigation.”