Glendale to Drink Posioned Water

[Tim Bousquet <chicoexaminer@xxxxxxxxx>]

Glendale will begin using chromium water
Level of chemical, at one part per billion, is within
all
federal and
state health standards.
Los Angeles Times - 7/13/01
By Alex Coolman, staff writer

GLENDALE -- The city will soon begin delivering to
residents
drinking
water containing minute amounts of chromium 6, a move
that comes
after months of wrangling with environmental officials
and local
water regulators.

Glendale plans to start using the water on July 23,
City Manager
Jim
Starbird said. The water will come in part from the
San Fernando
aquifer, which contains low levels of chromium 6, a
substance
that
can be carcinogenic when inhaled. The health effects
of
ingesting
chromium 6 are not known.

Under a plan announced Thursday, water drawn from the
aquifer
will be
blended with water from the Metropolitan Water
District. What
eventually comes out of customer's taps, Starbird
said, will
have
about 1 part per billion of chromium 6. That level of
the
chemical is
well within the California standard for total chromium
in
drinking
water -- which is set at 50 parts per billion -- and
is lower
than
the California "health goal" of 2.5 parts per billion.
The health goal is considered an extremely strict
standard.

The decision to take water from the aquifer comes
after months
of
discussion with the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the
San
Fernando Valley water master over the best way to
address the
chromium in the water.

Glendale has for months elected to deal with the
chromium
problem by
dumping the aquifer water in the Los Angeles River,
but neither
regulatory agency has been pleased with the situation.

The EPA pushed Glendale to keep pumping water out of
the
aquifer. The
city entered into a 1998 agreement to take the water
as part of
a
Superfund cleanup of volatile organic compounds in the
aquifer
water,
and the EPA has been eager to see the city follow
through on its
commitment.

David Stensby, EPA project manager, characterized
Glendale's
latest
plan as a positive step toward dealing with that
cleanup.

"I think everybody will benefit in terms of the
progress that's
being
made," he said.

Mel Blevins, the water master for the San Fernando
Valley, has
fought
Glendale on its water dumping because of his legal
obligation to
prevent waste of the resource.

He said he was not satisfied with Glendale's new
approach
because it
will still require some high-chrome water to be
dumped.

Glendale plans to spend about $800,000 in the months
to come on
treating water from wells that pull up high levels of
chromium
6.
Once treated, Starbird said, the water can be used for

irrigation and
industrial purposes rather than being dumped.

But until that happens, Blevins said, Glendale will be
wasting
water.
"The bottom line is, it's safe to drink 50 parts per
billion [of
chromium 6]," he said.

In addition to immediate spending on treatment for
high-chrome
wells,
Glendale also plans to spend between $6 million and $9
million
over
the next three years on a plant that will be able to
treat all
of the
aquifer water, Starbird said.

Water rates will be affected by the new treatment
plan. Though
the
price of water service is not expected to rise during
the three
years
of treatment plant construction, Starbird said the
price will
stay
steady when it would have otherwise decreased.

Over the long term, officials expect the treatment
plan to
economically benefit the city by reducing its
dependence on
purchases
made from the Metropolitan Water District.#


=====
Check out the Chico Examiner listserves at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DisorderlyConduct
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChicoLeft

Subscribe to the Chico Examiner for only $40 annually or $25 for six months. Mail cash or check payabe to "Tim Bousquet" to POBox 4627, Chico CA 95927

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/