10:15 PM PDT on Friday, August 26, 2011
BY JANET ZIMMERMAN
STAFF WRITER
jzimmerman@pe.com
A state health assessment has found that tap water from two wells contaminated with a rocket fuel ingredient could have caused thyroid problems that affected the physical and mental development of people who grew up in Rialto in the 1980s.
The report, released this week, said that the amount of perchlorate found during some periods in West Valley Water District's well No. 22 and Rialto's well No. 2 could have delayed speech development in some children there. Those with concerns about potential health affects were urged to consult their doctors.
Residents have expressed concerns that the contaminated water caused a variety of other problems, including migraines, attention deficit disorder, kidney cancer, miscarriages, stillbirths and birth defects.
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But California Department of Public Health officials reported that their study, based on existing scientific and medical information, found no link between those problems and exposure to perchlorate and trichloroethylene, or TCE, an industrial solvent also found in Rialto drinking water. TCE has been linked to cancer.
The 160-acre Goodrich industrial area north of the Rialto Airport was designated a federal Superfund cleanup site in 2009, prompting the health assessment.
Russell Bartlett, a state health assessor, said the report was prepared to address public concerns and represents the worst-case scenario. Because early records were not available to them, investigators had to assume that water from the contaminated wells was not blended with cleaner sources.
"If it was blended, then it would have reduced contaminant levels. There was nothing on paper or any kind of report we could use to verify that," he said.The water is safe to drink, Bartlett said.
From the 1940s to the 1980s, private companies and government agencies stored, tested and manufactured munitions, rocket motors, fireworks and other explosives on the site, where perchlorate and other toxic chemicals were dumped onto the ground and burned in pits.
The contamination leached into the groundwater supply, causing a plume that has traveled at least three miles to the southeast, affecting various wells and moving toward water supplies owned by the city of Riverside.
Perchlorate can inhibit the absorption of iodine by the thyroid gland and decrease its production of hormones that are critical during pregnancy and childhood for normal physical growth and brain development. Adults are not affected, according to the report.
"It's of no surprise to me that they're finding something. People were drinking water with perchlorate in it for many, many years," said Penny Newman, executive director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice in Glen Avon.
The findings will be discussed at a future community meeting in Rialto, local water officials said.
Butch Araiza, general manager of West Valley Water District, said he fears the findings will trigger a rash of lawsuits by people who think they may have been harmed by the contamination.
"I think there'll be some people who, if they have an ache and a pain, will think it's because of perchlorate, but I don't think it was. All of us might have drunk some perchlorate at some time in our life, because we didn't know what it was," said Araiza, who has lived in Rialto for 61 years.
The report also erroneously assumed that water from well No. 22 went to consumers directly, when in fact it was blended with other sources that would have reduced contaminant levels, he said.
The well, north of Interstate 210, was used only intermittently for a couple of months in the summer when demand was up; it was lower-quality water because it was sandy and jammed meters, Araiza said.
The well was last pumped in 1988 and permanently shut in 1997 after the perchlorate was found, he said. Other wells in Rialto, Colton and Fontana also were closed.
The agency installed ion exchange treatment systems in 2001 to remove perchlorate, which residents have helped pay for with an average $12 monthly surcharge on their water bills. Treatment takes the perchlorate below the level at which it can be detected, which is 4 parts per billion, Araiza said. The state's health standard for perchlorate is 6 parts per billion.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is leading the cleanup effort in Rialto, has issued a plan to spend $18 million building pumps and treatment systems to clean water of perchlorate, TCE and other compounds and deliver it to homes and businesses.
Newman of the Center for Community Action said she is concerned the EPA systems wouldn't clean the water enough, because even 6 parts per billion could pose a risk for infants and fetuses and lower levels over long periods of time could cause problems for adults.
"For people who have continued to drink this water for decades, that 2 parts per billion may be enough to put them over the threshold for developing disease," Newman said.
Dave and Diane Mavity and their two children, now 38 and 41, lived in Rialto from 1975 to 1980 and again from 1994 to 1998. In 1997, Diane was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and many of their neighbors also had thyroid problems, he said.
"Something's not right," Dave Mavity said.
The highest concentration measured at the Rialto site was more than 1,000 times the drinking-water standard, according to the EPA documents. TCE was found in concentrations more than 300 times the drinking-water standard.
Officials with the city of Rialto could not be reached for comment on the report because their offices were closed Friday.
Health report
Water agencies didn't have a test for perchlorate until 1997. That's when high levels were found in two wells that intermittently served Rialto. The contamination radiated from the Goodrich industrial site, now slated for federal Superfund cleanup. A state study concluded:
People who currently work at the Goodrich site are not at risk from chemicals in the soil or groundwater.
Drinking water supplied by Rialto, Colton, West Valley Water District and Terrace Water Co. is safe.
Some drinking water from West Valley's well No. 22 in 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988 may have contained TCE but isn't believed to have harmed people's health.
In the same years, perchlorate contamination in well No. 22 could have been high enough to modestly impair iodine absorption by the thyroid gland, potentially affecting physical growth and brain development of fetuses, infants and children.
The same is true of perchlorate in Rialto's well No. 2, from 1979 to 1997.
It is not possible to know whether eating fruits and vegetables from a garden irrigated with perchlorate-tainted water would have been harmful.
Source: California Department of Public Health
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