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NOTICE: Under the City Council’s Zero Tolerance Policy, the City will not blend any detectable levels of perchlorate into its water system and your water is safe. To learn more about the City Council’s Zero Tolerance Policy, click here. |
The City's Perchlorate Clean-Up Plan
Rialto is ground zero for this plume of perchlorate contamination -- one well with 10,000 ppb. (Remember, the Maximum Contaminant Level allowed in California is 6 ppb). Most wells in Rialto have two digit readings and several have three digit readings. Overall, perchlorate has been detected in 22 wells in and around the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin. This is one of the largest and most dense plumes in the United States. Rialto, like the surrounding water purveyors that also provide water to residents of Rialto, must serve clean, affordable, safe water. However the City of Rialto has another problem that is not shared by its neighboring water purveyors: as a general law city, Rialto is responsible for the health, safety and welfare of its residents and, as such, has a duty to do what it can to assure that the source of the contamination is fully remediated and the perchlorate is removed from the residents' water basin forever at the expense of the polluters. The cost of such removal is currently estimated to be between $200 million and $300 million. It is Rialto's goal that its ratepayers not be left with the responsibility to pay this massive clean-up cost.
Rialto's plan for cleaning up the perchlorate contamination has 3 prongs:
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Pursue Litigation.
Rialto has filed a federal lawsuit against forty-two parties, including Black & Decker, Inc., Goodrich Corporation, the United States Department of Defense, and the County of San Bernardino. Rialto seeks to compel these corporations and government entities to reimburse Rialto for the costs it has already incurred to investigate and pursue the clean up of perchlorate in the Rialto-Colton Basin and to ensure that they will continue to pay to clean up the perchlorate until it has been completely removed from our drinking water basin. Although a group of the polluters, including the County, but not the Department of Defense, has already spent an estimated $25 million in legal fees trying to defeat Rialto's legal efforts, the lawsuit has already paid for itself, and is making great progress.
The City of Colton has filed a similar Federal lawsuit against many of the same defendants, including the County of San Bernardino, which is also pending at this time. The City of Rialto and the City of Colton work closely together in coordinated discovery proceedings, obtaining cleanup orders from the court, and other key aspects of the litigation.
The federal litigation has succeeded in identifying over $1 billion worth of insurance coverage money and other assets available to these corporations and government entities to pay to Rialto for the clean up. Applicable insurance law requires that litigation be filed in order to "trigger" the availability of some insurance coverage funds. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the City has obtained an order providing that if Emhart Industries, Inc. is adjudged liable for the cost of cleaning up the water basin, then a $716 million fund held by Black and Decker, Inc. is available to pay such costs. If the lawsuit had not been filed by the City, it would have lost its rights to get at this money because the statute of limitations to sue the dissolved corporation expired in March 2005. Without Rialto pursuing the polluters and their insurance companies, these sources of potential clean up money (over $1 billion) would have been lost. Unless the lawsuit is successfully completed, these monies may still not be available to the community.
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Provide Evidence Developed in the Litigation to the Regional Board for Its Administrative Proceedings.
The second prong of Rialto's plan is to provide evidence gathered from discovery in the litigation to the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board for its use in Administrative Proceedings against the potentially responsible parties to compel them to investigate and clean up the perchlorate in the Rialto Basin. Rialto is working cooperatively with the Water Quality Board to support its issuance of "Clean Up and Abatement Orders" or CAOs. Rialto has already successfully assisted the Board in its issuance of a CAO and Replacement Water Order against the County of San Bernardino. The CAO required the County to install wellhead treatment to clean up perchlorate leaking from the County's Mid-Valley Sanitary Landfill and to provide the City with replacement water. The County states that it has already spent $6.5 million related to perchlorate treatment resulting from this order, and it is estimated that it will spend $20 million more over the next 5 years. Therefore, Rialto citizens are already receiving a benefit from the lawsuit which is worth more than the cost of pursuing the lawsuit. You can read the Cleanup and Abatement Order here. You can read the Replacement Water Order by clicking here.
However, the benefits of the lawsuit have just begun. The City is currently cooperating with the Regional Water Quality Control Board in its upcoming proceedings to issue Clean Up and Abatement Orders against other corporate polluters, including Black & Decker, Inc., Emhart Industries, Inc., B.F. Goodrich and Pyro Spectaculars, Inc. On October 13, 2006, the Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted a resolution appointing a hearing officer, and ordering the commencement of the proceedings against these very parties. The City of Rialto has joined the proceeding to assist in the prosecution of the polluters. To learn more about these further proceedings, click here:
To learn more about Water Quality Board Clean Up and Abatement Orders in general, click here:
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Pursue State and Federal Funding.
The federal litigation process and the development of evidence to support the issuance of regulatory orders takes time. To continue serving clean, safe, and affordable water to its water customers, your City representatives are cooperating with neighboring water purveyors to pursue State and Federal funds to assist in equipping its wells with perchlorate removal equipment (ion exchange treatment). Your City representatives have traveled to Washington, D.C. and to Sacramento to meet with our Congressional and State delegations to ask for assistance. Funding has also been furnished by the State Water Resources Control Board and the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Unfortunately these efforts, which have spanned 7 years now, have yielded less than $2 million to the City for treatment. But, with sound water management practices and the perchlorate surcharge paid by Rialto ratepayers, the City has been able to serve safe and clean water to its constituents and to pursue the polluters so that they, and not Rialto ratepayers, pay the massive tab at the end of the day.
From the initial detection of perchlorate in Rialto's wells, Rialto and its City Council have been fully committed to protecting public health and pursuing the polluters and their insurance carriers by every method available to make them pay to clean up perchlorate in the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin. The City has and will continue each of these activities until it achieves its goals.