[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATER QUALITY - 12/7/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

December 7, 2007

 

4. Water Quality

 

Editorial: Now it's up to the EPA; OUR VIEW: Action to clean up the perchlorate contamination must be swift

San Bernardino Sun – 12/6/07

 

We, like most Rialto residents, are relieved that the City Council finally has asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency to come to its rescue.

 

Now we urge the EPA to cut through its own red tape as quickly as possible and order cleanup of the plume of perchlorate contamination in groundwater under the city.

 

It's a good sign that Wayne Praskins, EPA Superfund project manager, attended Tuesday night's meeting and was supportive of the council's unanimous vote to petition the EPA to list a 160-acre industrial tract at the city's northern edge.

 

"I think we, like others, started to become concerned last year when the state's process began to get bogged down," Praskins said.

 

Bogged down it has been, and still is. Rialto's multimillion-dollar pursuit through state regulatory agencies of cleanup orders against companies that the city claims are responsible for the perchlorate has been stymied. The companies have put together strong cases that their legal responsibility for the contamination is either nil or limited, and have slowed things down through court challenges of the fairness of the process itself.

 

No matter what entities will ultimately be held liable for the cleanup's costs - which have been estimated as high as $300 million - there is no question that the groundwater contamination is severe and spreading. Rialto says some 360 million gallons of water are contaminated every month.

 

Praskins said the earliest a Superfund listing announcement on the Rialto site could come would be late next year. There seems to be little question that the site should qualify for Superfund status, so we ask the EPA to move forward with all due speed. #

http://www.sbsun.com/search/ci_7655102?IADID=Search-www.sbsun.com-www.sbsun.com

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