(Rialto)
City residents, local community groups and state environmental
organizations united in opposition today to a proposed settlement
agreement between the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board
and a party suspected of contaminating local drinking water supplies
with rocket fuel. The proposed deal will provide no immediate community
relief from contamination, and will delay clean water supplies to the
community by more than a year.
“This
agreement is a great deal for polluters and a bad deal for people,”
stated Davin Diaz, of the Center for Community Action and Environmental
Justice.
Public
comments submitted by public interest groups cited two major concerns
with the proposed agreement: It does not require Goodrich to provide
residents with a safe, secure supply of water while cleanup
negotiations and further testing efforts continue; the deal also
prevents the board from ordering Goodrich to provide a safe source of
water for more than a year. Furthermore, the proposed agreement
requires only more testing of contamination in the area, and recovers
less than 2% of the ultimate amount of money that it will take to clean
up the contamination in the region.
“Despite
the companies’ combined yearly revenues of more than $5 billion,
Goodrich Corp and Black & Decker have to date failed to clean up
the mess they created more than forty years ago,” stated Sujatha
Jahagirdar, Clean Water Advocate for Environment California Research
& Policy Center. “The time for delay is over. It’s time for these
companies to clean up their mess and provide citizens with clean water
in the meantime.”
Nestled
near the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains, the City of Rialto
had what local water officials described for decades as one of the
purest drinking water supplies in the region. In the late 1990’s,
Rialto water officials discovered rocket fuel pollution in the city’s
drinking water supply up to 800 times safety recommendations issued in
other states
Contamination
is suspected to have seeped into several of the town’s drinking water
wells from a nearby industrial site once owned by Goodrich Corp. and
Black & Decker. The problem began back in the 1950’s and 1960’s
when both companies owned and operated a weapons manufacturing plant in
the northern part of Rialto that used massive quantities of rocket
fuel. According to former employees at the plant, rocket fuel
routinely leaked from the facility during operations and workers
regularly disposed of rocket fuel in unlined pits behind the plant.
Despite
their responsibility and years of negotiations, neither Goodrich Corp.
nor Black & Decker have agreed to clean up the mess they have
created. While the companies delay, many citizens of Rialto drink
water that is polluted by rocket fuel. According to data supplied by
local and state water officials, water from drinking water wells
contaminated at up to three times the safety levels issued in many
states is piped to homes in the city. At levels found in contaminated
wells, perchlorate can lead to Attention Deficit Disorder, learning
disabilities and decreased IQ.
With
several other wells unusable due to contamination, the drought-prone
city teeters on the brink of running out of water. Residents have also
been forced to pay water bill price hikes to pursue the polluters for
clean water.
“The
Santa Ana Water Board has the power to order Goodrich to provide
immediate relief to the community,” concluded Diaz. “Any deal should
provide clean water to Rialto residents now.”
