Agencies move to protect water
Districts want drinking supply to be free of Aerojet
chemicals.
Two water districts,
rocket-engine maker Aerojet and government regulators are
moving forward with efforts to protect groundwater supplies
in Carmichael and Fair Oaks.
Both Fair Oaks and
Carmichael water districts are taking steps to stop plumes
of chemicals from reaching groundwater wells they use for
residential water.
District managers from
both districts told about 60 citizens at a town-hall-style
meeting last week that their drinking supplies are clean
and safe to drink.
The public meeting
also included presentations from the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and Aerojet.
Some citizens told
the panel that they are worried about the spreading plume
of groundwater pollutants in Carmichael.
"I am really concerned
about the efforts to get ahead of the plume," said
Seth Hodges, a Carmichael resident. "I'm also concerned
about whether there are enough monitoring wells."
Aerojet's plume of
tainted groundwater already has rendered many wells undrinkable
in Rancho Cordova south of the American River near the company's
property.
In 2003, in groundwater
test wells drilled at Rossmoor Bar - close to the Carmichael
Water District jurisdiction - Aerojet found the contaminant
NDMA (N-nitrosodimethylamine), which was used in making
liquid rocket fuel.
In Fair Oaks in the
mid-1990s, Aerojet also discovered that the solvent TCE
(trichloroethylene), had crossed below the American River
at Sailor Bar.
The company ran a pipe
under the river to treat the contaminated Fair Oaks water
in Rancho Cordova. Now, steps are being taken to further
protect Fair Oaks water and also keep Carmichael water clean.
In Carmichael, the
company expects a system of extraction wells and treatment
facilities will be working by 2006.
In Fair Oaks, Aerojet
expects similar new wells to be installed and treatment
systems in place by 2007.
"With both systems
we will have sufficient time to put in a remedy before both
drinking supplies are threatened," said Tim Murphy,
director of public affairs for GenCorp Inc., parent company
of Aerojet.
Both districts use
groundwater and American River surface water.
"Aerojet is appreciative
of the cooperative relationship we have with both water
districts," Murphy said. "It is allowing us to
quickly move forward with our cleanup activities."
Steve Nugent, general
manager of the Carmichael Water District, said, "If
we don't get to the point where we get these plumes contained
... (they) will continue to migrate."
If not contained, the
plume will migrate from 300 feet to 800 feet annually, he
said.
The Carmichael well
site closest to the plume is 6,000 feet away.
Nugent described three
scenarios in which the groundwater would be cleaned, in
each case using three wells to pump the water into pipelines
that would take the water to a treatment plant where the
pollutant would be removed.
One option would involve
constructing a small treatment plant at the Ancil Hoffman
Golf Course. A second alternative would to build a similar
small treatment plant on district property on Bajamont Way.
The third plan calls for using treatment plants at both
the golf course and the Bajamont Way site.
After being treated,
the water would be discharged into the American River or
used to irrigate Ancil Hoffman Golf Course. The district
favors using the treated water on the golf course, because
if it was released into the river, the district would get
no use of the valuable resource.
Alex MacDonald, an
engineer with the state's Central Valley Regional Water
Quality Control Board, said Aerojet would pay for the treatment
plants, pipes and wells.
"The goal of the
system is to stop the plume," MacDonald said.
When TCE was detected
a decade ago in Fair Oaks, a series of extraction wells
were installed on both the north side of the American River
- in Sailor Bar Park - and on the south side near the Nimbus
Fish Hatchery, MacDonald said.
The wells were put
in place with the best information available at the time,
he said.
"The system is
doing really well but probably there is some (pollutant)
that has leaked past," MacDonald said. "This next
effort is to go out there and capture that little bit that
has escaped."
Two new extraction
wells will be installed in Fair Oaks. One proposal calls
for tying them into a pipeline that would take the water
back under the river to Aerojet for cleaning in an arrangement
similar to what happens now.
However, District General
Manager Tom Gray will ask water customers at board meetings
and through fliers if it is better to remove the TCE from
the water at a treatment plant in Fair Oaks and use the
cleaned water in Fair Oaks taps.
"That decreases
the cost of purchasing water to our customers," he
said.
If customers don't
want the water used in their homes, perhaps it could be
used in parks, cemeteries or streams, Gray said.
A third option could
be to release treated water into the river and have Carmichael
Water District pump it out downstream and deliver it back
to Fair Oaks.
"Essentially,
the solution to pollution is dilution," Gray said.
A fourth alternative
would involve replacement of the contaminated water being
taken across the river for treatment.
"If the regulators
decide it is the most prudent to take our water and pump
it across the river to be treated and then give it to somebody
else, then I am going to seek gallon-for-gallon replacement
from Aerojet," Gray said.
ABOUT THE WRITER:
" The Bee's Bill Lindelof can be reached at (916) 321-1079
or blindelof@sacbee.com.
