Locals concerned about contaminated groundwater
Lydia M.
Willows Journal
10/20/2009
Concerns about what impact the proposed Crystal Geyser plant will have on a large pool of contaminated groundwater — known by toxics officials as the Orland plume — have spread recently.
As Crystal Geyser Water Co.'s application to build a sparkling water bottling plant in Orland makes it through the system, some people have expressed concern that the proposed well would draw the plume, thereby contaminating it and other wells in the area.
Experts with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, which is in charge of the cleanup, said that is unlikely.
Carol Northup, a spokeswoman at Toxic Substances Control, Glenn County Environmental Health Director Kevin Backus and Orland Public Works Director Jere Schmitke confirmed the proposed Crystal Geyser well is about 2,000 feet outside the plume and it is in a different aquifer.
Northup also said the aquifers run parallel, with several gradients in between.
"You would have to pump a ton of water to draw the plume," she said, adding that 160 acre feet per year — the amount Crystal Geyser proposes to pump at its maximum level — would not influence on the plume.
Backus said that according to the Glenn County code for the area around the plume, "all new wells have to be sealed a minimum of 140 feet below ground surface to get into the uncontaminated aquifer below the plume."
Schmitke said none of the city wells has any detected PCE, the chemical contaminant that was dumped by Orland Dry Cleaners decades ago.
Thirty-two city wells are monitored regularly for the chemical. Three of them are within 200 to 500 feet east of the plume, according to Backus.
"At this point in time, they haven't come back positive," Backus said, referring to water tests in the wells.
He also said to his knowledge, no one has gotten sick from the water in these wells.
What is the Orland plume?
The plume is an area of contaminated groundwater that extends about 2.5 miles southeast from the source and is about 4,000 feet wide with a depth between 12 and 127 feet, according to a 2007 report from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.
The initial contamination discovery came in 1986 when soil and groundwater tests were conducted on a underground gasoline storage tank site at the PG&E maintenance yard, about 500 feet down-gradient from Orland Dry Cleaners, according to the June 2007 Removal Action Workplan Report submitted to Toxic Substances Control.
"A dry well at the Orland Dry Cleaners was subsequently identified as the probable source of the PCE contamination," the report states. It was confirmed in 1988.
In 1991, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted a preliminary assessment and in 1992 Toxic Substances Control conducted a more thorough investigation, Northup said.
High levels of tetrachloroethene — PCE — indicated Orland Dry Cleaners had dumped spent dry-cleaning solvent into a sump located inside the 2,000-square-foot building at 726 Fifth St., the report says.
Though the exact dumping dates are not known, the location has been a dry cleaning business since the 1940s.
Toxic Substances Control reports indicate that from 1988 to 1992 dry-cleaning operations were contracted off site. In May 1992, operations resumed at the site, using a fully self-contained dry-cleaning machine.
In 1995, Northrup said, a "settlement agreement" was made between Toxic Substances Control and the previous owners, whose names were not immediately available.
Everyone involved "agrees who's responsible. It binds the parties" to do participate in the cleanup according to the agreement, she said.
Under federal Superfund law, "anybody who had anything to do with it" — owners, operators, even the solvent manufacturer, can be held responsible, Northrup said.
The area became an official Active Cleanup Site in 2004. The delay relates to the back log of sites requiring attention and the money it costs for the cleanup. With funding available, the work plan was developed and submitted for approval to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board in January.
Cleanup
Cleanup will begin when approval is granted. The Water Quality Control Board could not be reached for comment about when the approval might be expected.
With the state's push to use less energy, a relatively new system will be used in the cleanup process.
Northrup said "1,600 gallons of emulsified soy bean oil will be pumped into the aquifer. This creates an environment that will energize a bacterium that eat the PCE."
The bacterium occurs naturally in soil and is not harmful except to PCE, she said.
"It turns into an anaerobic condition when there is less oxygen in water and soil," Northrup indicated.
The bacterium likes these conditions and "will thrive and want to eat the solvent," she added. "In this process, the PCE breaks down into an innocuous form."
