I keep repeating myself on this issue, and this is the last time that I write on this one. The City of Rialto Engineers or the City of Rialto's Lawyer's came out with a Press Release Yesterday stating that there was an Emergency Situation when it came to the water in The City of Rialto!! Well, the problem with that is that there wasn't any previous announcement of any Pending Emergency, such as that we cannot clean our cars or Water our Lawns! As far as I know at this point and time there still isn't any Emergency enough to make a statement that says that we cannot wash our cars in the driveway or Water the Grass in our Yards!! It is just some tactic to get the EPA to take up the cause against the Businesses that the Law Suit is over currently, and I believe that this is a Brain Child of the same Half Witted Individual that came up with the great Idea to Sue the businesses that were supposedly at fault for the Perchlorate Contamination. But that was a huge backfire too now wasn't it!!
Owens should be fired before that 8% Utility Tax is taken up for that and only that!!!
BS Ranch
Rialto pursues state aid over perchlorate plume
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10:00 PM PST on Tuesday, November 20, 2007
RIALTO - The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an official declaration of local emergency, a mechanism to persuade the state to help clean up and stop the spread of perchlorate fouling Rialto's groundwater.
The city has been battling several companies that did business on a 160-acre industrial site -- believed to be the source of the pollution -- but assorted claims of legal responsibility remain unresolved while the contamination continues to spread.
"This is the best move we ever made," Rialto Mayor Grace Vargas said after the vote. "I think we've wasted too much time already."
The chemical perchlorate, suspected of causing birth defects, is contaminating 360 million gallons of Rialto's drinking water each month. Rialto's request to Gov. Schwarzenegger also seeks funding to stop the 6-mile-long plume of tainted groundwater, which moves about 20 inches per day.
The contaminants have polluted the Rialto/Colton Groundwater Basin, an underground reservoir from which Rialto pumps drinking water through several wells.
A hearing is scheduled for today in Los Angeles Superior Court, on a lawsuit filed by Goodrich Corporation, one of 42 "potentially responsibility parties" in the long-running conflict with the city. Rialto contends that the basin was polluted over the decades by several businesses that operated on the site north of Highway 210 in Rialto. Besides Goodrich, those companies include Pyro Spectaculars, Inc., Black & Decker Inc., Kwikset Locks, Inc., Kwikset Corporation and Emhart Industries, Inc.
The plume "is headed toward the city of Colton and the city of Riverside," City Councilman Ed Scott said on Monday. "The city stands firm on the responsible parties cleaning it up."
Meanwhile, Rialto has installed filters on several city wells to reduce the perchlorate to levels that make it safe.
"The maintenance of each well costs (the city) approximately $500,000 per year," Scott said on Monday. During Tuesday's Rialto council meeting, City Attorney Robert Owen noted the past year's paltry rainfall totals are putting pressure on water agencies all over California to scramble for a sufficient supply.
"The city and county are experiencing an unprecedented regional drought," Owen said. Further, a federal district court judge issued a preliminary ruling in a case to protect an endangered fish, the Delta smelt, which is expected to significantly reduce the amount of water available from the State Water Project aqueduct, Owen said.
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