News Coverage
Testing set for water in Valley
Chatsworth, West Hills wells to be checked for perchlorate
Published April 23, 2003
In response to residents' fear that the floor of the west San Fernando Valley could be contaminated with perchlorate -- a chemical linked to thyroid dysfunction -- scientists at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control will test wells in Chatsworth and the West Hills area, officials said Wednesday.
Next month, officials will test 20 groundwater-monitoring wells at DeVry West Hills, former site of Hughes Missile System Co.'s research and manufacturing plant. The testing will be broadened as access is gained to other monitoring sites.
"I don't think anyone should be nervous. I would ask them to be patient," said DTSC spokesman Ron Baker. "Using the scientific method, it will take us a while to figure out what's going on. ..."
The testing comes in response to complaints from activists who say perchlorate at the Santa Susana Field Lab -- which sits atop a hill dividing the San Fernando Valley from Simi Valley -- could have trickled down and permeated soils near their West Hills and Chatsworth homes.
Sites at the field lab have tested at 175 times the level of perchlorate considered safe by the California Department of Health Services.
"There's been concerns expressed by community members about impact on the east side (of the lab) and we are trying to address that concern," said Gerard Abrams, a senior engineer and geologist at the DTSC who is charged with the lab's cleanup.
Steve Lafflam, a spokesman for Boeing, which owns the former Rocketdyne site, said it is unlikely the chemical seeped from the lab site.
"I wouldn't anticipate seeing any results showing perchlorate has left our site. I don't think that's a reality or a possibility."
If the wells do yield perchlorate, Rocketdyne will be only one of several sources considered as a possible cause of the contamination, said David Bacharowski, assistant executive officer of groundwater remediation for the Regional Water Quality Control Board that is doing the testing.
Over the past five years, Boeing has monitored more than a dozen wells along the eastern edge of the lab site, as far as a mile and a half from the facility, Bacharowski said. Only one test site found perchlorate at the DHS level requiring action -- 4 parts per billion, he said.
Bonnie Klea, a West Hills resident who has sought action from the DTSC for years, said she is skeptical of Boeing's findings.
"I want to know if it's safe to have a backyard garden with fruit, and nobody has been able to answer that because nobody has tested down here," said Klea, a cancer survivor and former Rocketdyne employee.
Abrams said rainwater, which can carry perchlorate, does flow down from the eastern edge of the Rocketdyne site where for decades rocket testing and nuclear energy research was done -- until chemical and nuclear contamination was found on the site in 1989.
The rain flow emanates from an area called Happy Valley, where propellant and munitions testing had been conducted along with military flare research and production, Abrams said. The water falls down through Woolsey Canyon into Chatsworth and from Dayton Canyon into West Hills, but Abrams said the department has yet to test far beyond the grounds.
The Department of Water and Power, which supplies drinking water to Los Angeles, does not use water from the sites that will be monitored by the DTSC. The DWP does not pump drinking water west of Van Nuys Boulevard, though some private well users might.
In December, the DTSC found perchlorate at four times the accepted level in 18 shallow wells in Simi Valley. Officials have been unable to link the chemical to the Santa Susana lab site.
So far, the department has determined that at least one plume of perchlorate -- the length of two football fields -- exists in Happy Valley, on the lab's east side. The chemical has been detected 200 feet deep in the bedrock there.
Bill Walker, vice president of the Environmental Working Group's West Coast office, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit group focusing on toxics affecting communities, said the high level of perchlorate found at the lab site is worrisome.
"Look at the history of perchlorate plumes all over Southern California," he said. "It's a history of people being surprised because they thought it was contained in a different area.
"I can't state there is a clear danger," Walker said, "but I don't know how you can look at this site and say there is no danger."
Perchlorate, a white or colorless powder that easily dissolves in water, is a rocket and missile fuel byproduct that interrupts how the body processes iodine in the thyroid gland. It causes metabolic difficulties and developmental disorders. The chemical has been found to have been released in more than 22 states, often by defense contractors.