EPA ducks perchlorate standards (Contra Costa Times September 27, 2008) White House Edits Draft!!

BS Ranch Perspective:

Alright everybody that drinks water in the City of Rialto, get ready to suffer from Cancer and the like it is great that the government is standing by everything that we do for them! The Tax Dollars at work I always say. Drink up and get that Stomach Cancer and dwindle away to nothing! I have seen this happen first hand!

That is the scary part, and to have the Government, our Government turn their backs on the tax payers of the Inland Empire is beside me!!

BS Ranch

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EPA ducks perchlorate standards

White House edits draft

Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 09/27/2008 08:23:17 PM PDT

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not plan to set a drinking-water standard for perchlorate, a common regional contaminant used in explosives like rocket fuel and fireworks.

The decision, first reported by The Washington Post, came in a document indicating the EPA had made a "preliminary regulatory determination" not to set a standard.

The Sun has obtained a summary of the report from staff for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

According to the summary, the EPA draft underwent heavy editing from the White House, and the EPA's original suggestion to have a 45-day comment period was reduced to 30 days.

Perchlorate has been found at 400 sites nationwide, including more than 100 in California.

Locally, it has been found in especially high concentrations around Riverside, the San Gabriel Valley, Redlands and Rialto, where the EPA is close to naming a 160-acre area a Superfund site.

Perchlorate can interfere with the thyroid gland, affecting metabolism as well as mental and physical development.

California has set a maximum standard of 6 parts per billion, and Massachusetts has set one at 2 ppb in drinking water.

In 2002, EPA scientists developed a draft protective level of 1 ppb for drinking water, assuming all perchlorate intake comes from water. In reality, perchlorate is also found in milk, breast milk, lettuce and other food sources.

The National Academy of Sciences

was then tasked with coming up with a recommendation and came up with a reference dose of about 20 ppb, assuming a body weight of 150 pounds and that all perchlorate is ingested through water.

Environmentalists and some members of Congress blasted the news as an example of the White House and Pentagon - much of the perchlorate contamination is at old Pentagon and defense contractor sites - influencing the EPA.

"The Defense Department's response to perchlorate contamination raises serious questions about the appropriateness of its role in the EPA's internal regulatory process," Rep. Hilda Solis, an El Monte Democrat, and Rep. Gene Green, a Texas Democrat wrote to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson.

The Sept. 23 letter asks for all communications on the issue since last year.

EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said the agency plans to issue the preliminary determination in the next couple of weeks and the final one by the end of the year but that "no decision has been made."

"This is an open and transparent process," she said.

Solis and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have sponsored legislation to require the EPA to set a perchlorate standard.

In March, the Government Accountability Office criticized the EPA's risk assessment process and said it is not transparent enough and allows too much influence from other federal agencies, including the White House.

Boxer mentioned the issue at a May committee hearing.

"We had a full hearing on a GAO report ... and the fact that EPA is trying to shunt the scientists to the back, put the (Department of Defense) contractors to the front - at the table - and they said it's very dangerous," she said at the May hearing.

An EPA decision not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water would not have a major effect on Superfund sites with perchlorate, like the one on its way to Rialto, said Kevin Mayer, the EPA's regional perchlorate manager and a Superfund project manager.

Treatment systems the EPA uses in Rialto should remove all perchlorate from the water, he said, but the agency won't have to clean water contaminated at lower levels than the state standard, 6 ppb.

"In a Superfund program, we're required to meet federal and state standards, and we're required to assess the risks for those contaminants that don't have standards," he said.

Rialto City Council to Vote Tonight on Keeping 'Zero Tolerance' Perchlorate Policy (Press Enterprise March 17, 2008)

BS Ranch Perspective

I don't know the out come of the vote, but It would be dumb for the city at this early time to hold back and let loose and just leg go of the "Zero Tolerance" reference such a serious thing as Perchlorate!!

BS Ranch

Rialto council to vote tonight on keeping 'zero tolerance' perchlorate policy

		Download story podcast

10:00 PM PDT on Monday, March 17, 2008

By MARY BENDER
The Press-Enterprise

Rialto should stick to its standard for removing the chemical perchlorate from city-owned drinking water wells, even though the state of California has set a less stringent standard, attorneys for the city have recommended.

The Rialto City Council is scheduled to act on that issue during its meeting tonight.

Rialto residents get their drinking water either from two private agencies -- West Valley Water District and Fontana Water Company -- or from the city's own utility, the water division of the Public Works Department.

The city provides drinking water to about half of Rialto's residents -- roughly 11,000 connections. To filter out the perchlorate that contaminates the groundwater under Rialto and to make the water safe for drinking, the city installed equipment on three of its wells.

Tonight, special legal counsel for the city will advise the council to reaffirm Rialto's "zero tolerance policy" on perchlorate. The city first adopted the policy in 2003, and reconfirmed that stance in 2005.

"Under this policy, the Water Division is to shut down any municipal well in which the perchlorate is detected, and not to serve water from that well until the Water Division can reliably remove the perchlorate down to the point that perchlorate cannot be detected in the treated water," attorney Susan Trager, the city's special counsel on perchlorate matters, wrote in a report.

Equipment on city wells can't detect perchlorate at levels less than 4 parts per billion, Trager said by phone on Monday.

In October, the state Department of Public Health adopted a standard for perchlorate in drinking water, setting the maximum allowable contaminant level at 6 parts per billion.

But Trager, in her report, explained that it wouldn't save the city any money to relax its own standard to the perchlorate level that the state of California says is acceptable. It wouldn't be worth the cost and effort of recalibrating the equipment on the city's three wells, she advised.

In the treatment process, the perchlorate gets stuck to tiny resin beads in the water. "They molecularly attract the perchlorate and filter it out," explained Francis Logan, an attorney with Trager's Irvine-based firm, which specializes in water and land-use law.

Perchlorate is an ingredient in fireworks, munitions and solid rocket propellant. During World War II, the federal government purchased 2,800 acres of land in northern Rialto to build storage facilities for rockets and munitions, which contained perchlorate.

After the war, the government sold the land. In the ensuing decades, assorted defense contractors, fireworks manufacturers and other companies have done business on the land, and the city alleges that all parties share responsibility for the perchlorate contamination of Rialto's groundwater.

The land is roughly north of Highland Avenue and west of Locust Avenue.

The perchlorate plume polluting the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin is believed to be about six miles long, and to spread at a rate of about three feet per day, according to city officials.

Reach Mary Bender at 909-806-3056 or mbender@PE.com

Rialto to be REPAID before its Rate payers (Daily Bulletin March 10, 2008)

BS Ranch Perspective

 

Wow, this is great news for those that were charged through the water Crisis, that the Perchlorate Contamination had put us through!! It is one thing when the mistake was make to fight it the way that it was, Owen was completely wrong, and I don't know why the City Council gave this guy so much of a leash to do these kinds of careless law suits, to benefit his pockets and not the city!!

 

BS Ranch

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Rialto to be repaid before its ratepayers

Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Created: 03/10/2008 10:14:27 PM PDT

RIALTO - The good news for customers of Rialto's water system is that the city has started settling its expensive legal battles against suspected water polluters.

The bad news is that, although customers have been paying for the team of lawyers and consultants through a surcharge on their water bills, no quick reimbursement is in sight.

Rialto has spent at least $20 million treating and investigating perchlorate and other chemicals polluting the groundwater, as well as fighting the suspected polluters in court.

But policies enacted by the City Council since 2004 indicate that the city and its water department, which serves about half the city, get repaid after legal settlements and judgements before the customers.

"I think it's a fair discussion to reconsider that," said City Councilwoman Winnie Hanson, a member of the council's perchlorate subcommittee.

The first settlement in the perchlorate matter is being finalized with San Bernardino County and calls for the county to clean up part of the contamination and pay the city $4 million.

The surcharge customers pay starts at $6.85 per bill and increases with consumption.

Longtime resident Mary Moton said the perchlorate charge on her last monthly water bill of $69.44 was $9.27.

"I think we should get all our money back. That's fair," she said.

When the council established the surcharge in 2004, it passed a policy that states the first priority is

repaying the water department, plus an extra $1.5 million for the department's reserves.

That repayment includes $5 million to City Council transferred from the General Fund reserves to the water department in November 2006 to pursue polluters.

After the city receives from polluters an amount equal to half the surcharges collected, ratepayers will be able to be reimbursed.

In recent months, Councilman Ed Scott, the other member of the perchlorate subcommittee, has said the ratepayers should be reimbursed before the water and general funds.

"That's my preference," he said.

Hanson said the council will probably have to examine the issue. She said members meeting in closed session would decide whether they want to vote on the issue in open session.

Hanson said she hasn't come down on one side of the issue yet. Her determination will include a number of factors, including the fiscal health of various city accounts.

Some residents don't seem to be conflicted.

"I think that the citizens should be paid back first. They didn't waste any time in taking the money out," Rialto resident and water customer Toby Polinger said of the city.

"It seems like the city puts these kinds of things together frequently that the Rialto citizens are often considered last," he said.

jason.pesick@sbsun.com

(909) 386-3861

Perchlorate pact at hand- At Last (SB Sun Feb. 23, 2008) Rialto & San Bernardino are finally ready to settle their portion of the Perchlorate Cleanup

BS Ranch Perspective

Looks like it might be a finished deal, and there is minimal cost now that Rialto City will be spending on this in the future, I still am wondering where the money is going to come from to re-pay the bundle of money that was spent on the battle against the County. The news report was that they had some $23 Million already spent, fighting this case under the leadership of Owen. It was about time that the Council Wised up and Fired Owen and saved the city a great deal of their Utility Tax Benefit, that the people were paying towards the city, not for Perchlorate contamination fighting, but for Law Enforcement, and Fire Fighting Benefits!!! Owen was taking the money's that was collected however and forcing the city to fight this dumb law suit.

I for one am glad that it is done.

BS Ranch

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Perchlorate pact at hand - at last

Article Launched: 02/23/2008 07:25:50 PM PST

It's about time.

Rialto and San Bernardino are finally on the cusp of settling their portion of the perchlorate-cleanup lawsuit Rialto filed in 2004.

That suit named not just San Bernardino, but the U.S. Department of Defense and some 40 companies that Rialto wants to hold responsible for the perchlorate contamination in its groundwater. The federal lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in October, but if county supervisors approve the settlement that Rialto City Council signed onto last week, the county will no longer be among the defendants.

That's good. We hate to see local governments suing each other, pitting one set of taxpayers' money against another in legal fees, instead of working out a suitable accommodation. In this case, far better to spend money on cleaning up the contamination than on dueling lawyers.

But we understand that sometimes such suits are necessary to bring both parties to the table ready to negotiate.

The settlement calls for the county to pay Rialto $4 million and clean up the western portion of the contamination. The county was not a source of perchlorate in the groundwater, but land that the county acquired to expand a landfill may be a source due to the activities of past owners of that land.

We're keeping our fingers crossed, because the two parties have been "close" to settlement several times before. A Rialto councilman had predicted the two sides would reach an agreement in December; they came close last April; they were working on it until the two sides fell into a shouting match in 2006.

But we give them credit for sticking with it and reaching accommodation - assuming the supervisors OK the deal.

Rialto Accepts Suit Deal (SB Sun Feb. 19, 2008) SB County Would pay $4Million over Perchlorate!

BS Ranch Perspective

Rialto's acceptance of the suit Deal was a good one over all, however the City is still out $19 Million in total battling the County, and the other Businesses to clean up the Perchlorate mess to begin with. However having said that the city was reported to be in the hole at $23 million at last printed report that I had read via the SB Sun, and the case was then placed on hold. then Owen was Fired (Thank God) and now they have decided to somewhat close the case with the county by receiving a payment of $4 Million and now I am left wondering what happened to the rest of the money, that would be $19 Million, that was spent on the whole mess and it is missing that would have been used on the Police Departments 3% at 50 Retirement Package or maybe they could have, used that money more importantly to build a Brand New POLICE DEPARTMENT! TO QUIT PIECING TOGETHER AN OLD OUTGROWN BUILDING THAT IS THE POLICE BUILDING NOW. THE CITY OF RIALTO WAS GOING TO BUILD A POLICE BUILDING BACK IN 1991!! However there was a claim that there was never enough money to build it!! Now there was $23 Million to spend on a Law Suit for Perchlorate, and Now they are $19 Million at Loss in the deal and I venture to state that the new Police Building would only cost the city some 10 Million or more to build I am not sure but I am one to say that the City of Rialto is at the short end of the stick.

All because of miss management by the Management of the City of Rialto, and the City Council of Rialto City!!

BS Ranch

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Rialto accepts suit deal

SB County would pay $4M over perchlorate

Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 02/19/2008 10:04:34 PM PST

RIALTO - The City Council voted in closed session on Tuesday night to settle its lawsuits against San Bernardino County regarding perchlorate contaminating groundwater.

Under the terms of the agreement, which the council unanimously approved, the county would pay Rialto $4 million and clean up the western portion of the contamination.

That cleanup could costs tens of millions of dollars.

"They are really the only responsible party that has stepped forward," Councilman Ed Scott said.

The county's contamination is flowing from the county-owned Mid-Valley Sanitary Landfill in Rialto's north end.

The county Board of Supervisors still has to approve the deal.

Perchlorate, used to produce explosives, is flowing through local drinking water, but officials say it is not being served to residents.

The city filed a federal lawsuit against dozens of parties, including the county, that it suspects of contaminating the water.

The city has also filed a separate lawsuit against the county in state court.

Also during the closed session, the council voted to have one of its outside attorneys, Susan Trager, manage its perchlorate-related legal battle.

Former City Attorney Bob Owen had served in that role until the council fired him in January.

Negotiations to Continue on Water Cleanup. (Press Enterprise Jan. 29, 2008)

BS Ranch Perspective

The negotiations should continue, once they are finished they should look to the assistance of the EPA to help in the final Clean Up of the Water to Protect the people of Colton & Rialto!!

BS Ranch

Negotiations to continue on water cleanup

10:00 PM PST on Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Press-Enterprise

Closed-door negotiations aimed at resolving the liability and clean up of the Inland region's largest unabated plume of perchlorate contamination are likely to continue another 60 days, officials said.

Lawyers for state regulators and the three companies alleged to have contributed to the groundwater pollution told a Los Angeles Superior Court judge Tuesday they needed more time to reach an agreement to keep talking. A status conference was set for Feb. 15, said Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board.

A six-mile long plume of perchlorate, an ingredient of rocket fuel and fireworks, sits below Rialto and Colton and has tainted more than a dozen drinking wells.

--Jennifer Bowles

jbowles@PE.com

Rialto Perchlorate Case Parties Agree to Delay (SB Sun Jan. 29, 2008)

BS Ranch Perspective

I am of the belief that the Fontana Water Co.'s Chair is right, that no matter what the Solution of this case that the needs of the people regarding Water will not be met. The people the Inland Empire (namely Rialto) need to know that the people that have been Elected to make sure that there is ample SAFE Drinking Water to have should be available to the Citizens in which they became obligated to, though the election process.

The problem with the statements here is that the Chair from Fontana's Water Co. has been the most honest, with this report. I have seen that there is something that is bigger then what one man Owen could do, even when he said he could do it through the DVD he had mailed out to every Rialto Resident. But now the Truth is being told and with Owen being Let Go for poor Performance, via this water Case and the Police Department Case, that the City Council Originally wanted the city of Rialto to swallow!!

Now I wonder since Owen is gone, what is Rialto going to do with the case, but I can say one thing for sure, With the statement that the Fontana Water Co. Representative stated, they should look to close the case and go with the EPA to clean the water the best way they can.

BS Ranch

Rialto perchlorate case parties agree to delay

Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 01/29/2008 08:35:49 PM PST

A messy battle over efforts to clean up Rialto's drinking water continued Tuesday as suspected polluters and government agencies agreed to push past a court-imposed deadline.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge was scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday regarding whether state cleanup hearings held by the State Water Resources Control Board can go forward.

But state officials working for the Riverside-based Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board and three suspected polluters wanted 60 more days to continue negotiating a settlement to the contamination dispute instead of going through hearings before the state board.

"The parties want some additional time to continue the talks," said Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer of the regional board.

In case those two-month-old talks unravel, the parties are also trying to agree on a schedule to resolve the court dispute over whether the state hearings can even take place. In November, the parties also decided to push off a court hearing on the fairness of the state hearings so they could begin the settlement talks.

Rialto's water is contaminated with perchlorate, a chemical used to produce explosives, and trichloroethylene, an industrial cleaning product.

The courts got involved shortly before the state hearings were supposed to begin in August. Three suspected polluters - Black & Decker, Goodrich and Pyro Spectaculars - sued in Los Angeles County Superior

Court, claiming the state hearing process was so flawed that it could not go forward.

Judge Dzintra Janavs, who recently announced plans to retire, halted the state hearings in August until she could resolve whether the state hearings were fair and could go forward.

The state regulatory agencies have tried to force three suspected polluters to clean up much of the contamination for years.

On separate fronts, Rialto has filed a federal lawsuit against dozens of suspected polluters. The case is scheduled for trial in October. Most recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has become involved in Rialto and may declare one of the source areas a Superfund site.

Rialto and many of the local water agencies are upset with the regional board's negotiations with the three suspected polluters.

"We need to move ahead one way or the other. If we were allowed to be in the secret meetings with the water board, I'd be much more comfortable extending the court hearings tomorrow," Rialto Councilman Ed Scott a member of the city's perchlorate subcommittee, said Monday.

Michael Whitehead, president of the San Gabriel Valley Water Co., which owns the Fontana Water Co., said he does not have confidence that a possible settlement will even lead to a solution that meets the public's needs and restores the water supply.

"All the major affected parties should be at the table," he said.

Water Officials Tell Rialto That Perchlorate Levels Are Safe!! (SB Sun Jan, 11, 2008)

BS Ranch Perspective

I don't know about you, but just the idea that PERCHLORATE was, or might be, in the water that is coming out of the Tap, at my home, of which I have a filter on that would not even come close to catching any of the PERCHLORATE that was in the Tap water that I have at my home to drink. Especially knowing that PERCHLORATE contamination causes thyroid cancer and all kinds of other cancers that they don't even mention in any report, they just talk about the main thing that PERCHLORATE attacks and that is the thyroid gland.

I guess at the meeting the officials from the water department was trying to give us reassurance and say that the water at our homes is no longer contaminated with the PERCHLORATE because it has been removed from the water through osmosis filtration, however I know people in the City of Rialto that have lost family Members to the PERCHLORATE contamination and I don't think that they would believe anyone that the PERCHLORATE was removed 100%!!

BS Ranch

Water officials tell Rialto that perchlorate levels are safe

By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 01/11/2008 10:22:20 PM PST

RIALTO - The water here is safe to drink. That was the message city officials pushed at a town-hall meeting at Frisbie Middle School.

The meeting this week focused on the chemical perchlorate, which is contaminating local drinking water.

Rialto and West Valley Water District officials - which together serve water to the vast majority of Rialto - told residents they don't have to worry about the water coming out of their tap.

"We run the systems until there's no detectable perchlorate," Bill Hunt, an engineering consultant for Rialto, said of the treatment systems at the Thursday meeting.

Perchlorate, a chemical used to produce explosives like rocket fuel and fireworks, is flowing through Rialto from an industrial site north of the 210 Freeway that dates back to World War II.

The panel at the meeting included City Council members Winnie Hanson and Ed Scott, who make up the perchlorate subcommittee, as well as medical, engineering and environmental consultants. For the first hour, the experts made presentations that at times confused people in attendance with talk of "resins" and "lag vessels."

Perchlorate can block the thyroid gland's access to iodine and cause an underactive thyroid, said Mary McDaniel, a doctor and lawyer with the firm McDaniel Lambert Inc. who reviewed a number of recent studies.

"So some of these studies make you worry a little bit more, some of them make you worry a little less. That's science,"

she said.

The thyroid is necessary for metabolism and brain development. It is not well understood how perchlorate affects sensitive populations like pregnant women and children.

McDaniel also pointed out that bottled-water companies do not have to test for perchlorate. If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets a standard for perchlorate in drinking water, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration might set a perchlorate standard for bottled water, according to the FDA's Web site.

The second half of the meeting was set aside for residents to ask questions.

People with relatives who have birth defects and thyroid conditions wanted to know if perchlorate could have caused them.

Kit Satre, who lives in Yucaipa but worked in Rialto starting in 1985, said she has two children with such serious birth defects that they have had 50 surgeries between them.

But McDaniel said she was not aware of perchlorate causing birth defects, and West Valley Water District board President Earl Tillman said his customers have never been exposed to high levels of perchlorate.

Thursday's meeting had a very different tone than past meetings, which city officials have used to attack San Bernardino County for its role in some of the contamination, as well as to question the safety of West Valley's water.

Scott on Thursday heaped praise on other elected officials, including Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, and welcomed West Valley representatives.

"We're not serving any perchlorate," said Tillman, the president of West Valley's board.

If West Valley detects perchlorate in one of its wells, it takes the well offline or installs a treatment system, said General Manager Anthony "Butch" Araiza.

A West Valley well with a perchlorate level of 2 parts per billion is no longer online, he said.

Rialto officials say they do not serve water from wells if they detect perchlorate in the wells.

Fontana Water Co., the other big water agency in Rialto and a division of the San Gabriel Valley Water Co., does not serve water contaminated with perchlorate beyond the state's maximum level of 6 ppb, said Robert Young, assistant general manager.

Scott also told residents not to buy personal water treatment systems to clean out the perchlorate because the people selling them may be trying to scam residents.

He also encouraged people to write Marshall Larsen, the chairman, president and CEO of Goodrich, one of the companies Rialto says is responsible for the contamination. Scott said they should tell him to stop fighting Rialto.

jason.pesick@sbsun.com

(909) 386-3861

One Perchlorate Issue May be Near End (Daily Bulletin December 20, 2007)

BS Ranch Perspective

It seems that the County Claims that they have Just $15Million in Legal fees & Clean up Paid dedicated to Perchlorate clean up, but what this writer was wondering was that the City of Rialto has over $23 Million in Legal Fees and Clean Up Dedicated to Perchlorate, now how can a small City like Rialto have almost double the money in the clean up then the Largest County in the Continental United States? Is the City of Rialto's Attorney adding his fees a little to the heavy side in his favor? That is what I constantly wonder? Because Rialto has double and in some cases triple spent what most cities have had to spend to clean up this contaminant such as Perchlorate.

BS Ranch

One perchlorate issue may be near end

By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer

Article Created: 12/20/2007 07:26:37 PM PST

RIALTO - A multimillion-dollar legal drama between the city and San Bernardino County over who is responsible for a toxic underground plume may be nearing an end.

The sides appear close to an agreement that would settle the city's lawsuits against the county, according to sources familiar with the situation.

"I'm expecting good results. I really am," said Rialto Councilwoman Winnie Hanson, a member of the council's perchlorate committee.

The city and county are wrangling over the extent of the county's role in the contamination.

A federal lawsuit filed by the city against the county and dozens of other parties won't go to trial until October 2008 at the earliest. If a settlement is reached, the suit still will go to trial, but the portion of it involving the county would be settled.

In a second suit filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court, the city alleges the county expanded a landfill in violation of a 1998 agreement made when the county was expanding the Mid-Valley Sanitary Landfill. The settlement would put an end to that lawsuit.

The county is one of dozens of parties Rialto says are responsible for perchlorate contaminating local drinking water.

In 1997, the county purchased property to expand the landfill, which is contaminated with perchlorate, a toxic industrial chemical. Rialto says the work done on the property after the expansion caused the contamination to spread.

Perchlorate is used to

produce explosives and can harm humans by interfering with the thyroid gland.

Earlier in the week, Councilman Ed Scott sounded a more pessimistic note about the settlement. He had been saying for weeks the two sides would reach a settlement by Thursday.

At Tuesday night's council meeting and then again by phone on Wednesday, Scott said a settlement agreement between the two sides died somewhere on the county's end.

"We were assured that we would have something in place by the 20th so we could have some good news for our citizens," Scott said.

But county officials say work on a settlement is still moving forward.

"The county's lawyers are working on the settlement with the city's lawyers and our insurance company," Bob Page, 5th District Supervisor Josie Gonzales' chief of staff, wrote in an e-mail.

Gonzales' district includes Rialto.

Last year, a tentative settlement called for the county to pay the city roughly $6 million in exchange for the city dropping charges against the county, but the two sides could never agree on specifics.

Meanwhile, Rialto and the county are continuing to rack up legal bills fighting each other.

At its meeting Tuesday, the county's Board of Supervisors approved spending $400,000 in additional legal services related to perchlorate. Much of that money will go to investigate the extent of pollution, not just to lawyers.

To date, the county has spent $2.2 million on legal fees and $15 million for investigation and treatment, said county spokesman David Wert.

Closed-Door Water Talks Frustrate Rialto Council (SB Sun November 26, 2007) "What Goes Around: Comes Around"

BS Ranch Perspective

I know that this subject matter is not the thing that you want the anyone to feel what it is like to have all the business conducted behind closed doors, but sometimes the old saying "What Goes Around Comes Around" comes to mind with this story!!

The reason being is that the Rialto City Council is crying because the people in charge of the Perchlorate situation that THEY are in Charge of, are ignoring all their requests and going behind closed doors and having the meetings to discuss the Perchlorate problems. Ed Scott, Owen, and others are very confused why this is happening to them, Well I have to say that "What goes Around, Comes Around"!

The people of Rialto didn't speak out the last time and they are asking for the services that they are getting when it comes to the business of Rialto and what goes on there. The Perchlorate should have been turned over to the Environmental Protection Agency at the start, but the City Council listened to the Council whom is not working in the best interest of his Client, but the best interest of his WALLET!! He Recommended going to Court and filing a case against businesses that were probably not in control of the employees that were dumping the perchlorate in the first place. They were the companies that purchased the smaller companies that were responsible for the disposal of the Perchlorate. The EPA, should have been called to begin with, and then the EPA should have been the people that should have been after the responsible party for the DISPOSAL of PERCHLORATE!! It wasn't up to Rialto directly to be the police for the EPA. Owen just wanted to fill his wallet with a whole bunch of money that he would be using for this case. The other employees of the city that were on board were hired by Owen as experts for their testimony.

Now this is all coming back to bite the city Council in the butt and still nobody is up in arms against them, nobody is wondering why they spent some $23Million dollars of the Utility Tax to get through the first part of this Perchlorate Battle, and now that they are not seeing any recourse and any money coming back in, Owen is still not being fired. I don't get it??

BS Ranch




Closed-door water talks frustrate Rialto council
Jason Pesick, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 11/26/2007 09:35:13 PM PST


Rialto wants its groundwater cleaned up, but a local water board has cut the city out of talks with three companies who are in "closed-door briefings" on the remediation process.
The city, which wrote a strongly worded letter Monday to the state's Environmental Protection Agency headquarters complaining about the insider talks, views the negotiations as a slap in its face.

It wants to be at the table on the talks to clean up industrial chemicals discharged in its northern section because it did a lion's share of the legwork to build a legal case against the companies.

The three companies accused of contaminating a 160-acre site in Rialto are Goodrich, Emhart - a defunct division of Black & Decker - and Rialto-based fireworks company Pyro Spectaculars.

The purpose of the letter on Monday was to request that state EPA Secretary Linda Adams order the local water board to open the door to city officials on the talks with the companies.

"Rialto needs more than a prayer and a hope that the regional board staff will safeguard Rialto's water interests," wrote councilmembers Winnie Hanson and Ed Scott. "We simply want our underground drinking water supply cleaned up so it can be replenished in the future."

Rialto officials say that 720million gallons of water will become contaminated while the water board and companies "talk" over the next few months.

"I think it's totally ridiculous," said Scott, a member of the council's perchlorate subcommittee.

"Why are they doing it behind closed doors? It makes no sense to me," he said.

Scott suggested that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should dissolve the regional board.

The staff of the local water agency - called the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board - and lawyers for the companies, recently agreed to negotiate a possible settlement.

"The parties have agreed to enter settlement discussions," said Bob Wyatt, a lawyer for Emhart.

The two sides only agreed to talk recently after a court hearing was put off last week that would have examined whether public hearings could proceed on who was responsible for the pollution.

"We are seeking a settlement that achieves cleanup of the perchlorate and TCE contamination ... (flowing down from) the 160-acre site," said Gerard Thibeault, the Santa Ana board's executive officer, referring to the Riverside-based Santa Ana board's recent cleanup efforts.

TCE, or trichloroethylene, is a solvent used in various industrial cleaning products.

Perchlorate, used to produce explosives like rocket fuel and fireworks, is flowing through Rialto from industrial sites first used by the U.S. military during World War II.

Perchlorate can be harmful to humans by interfering with the thyroid gland, which plays a role in metabolism and neurological development.

The state umbrella group that oversees the Santa Ana board, called the State Water Resources Control Board, was scheduled to hold hearings in August to determine if the three companies should clean up some of the perchlorate. Rialto and the staff from the regional Santa Ana board, headed by Thibeault, were going to act as prosecutors against the companies.

But before the hearings could start, the companies filed lawsuits saying that the state board process was flawed and asked Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs to keep the hearings from getting off the ground.

Janavs halted the hearing process. On Nov. 1, she consolidated the companies' lawsuits into one and made it clear that no matter what she decides, someone will appeal the case, likely up to the California Supreme Court.

On Nov. 21, the two sides - the companies versus the regional and state water boards, which are represented by the California attorney general - were scheduled to argue about whether Janavs should allow the state hearings to go forward. But Wednesday's arguments were delayed because the parties said they wanted to talk.

Rialto officials complained that they were not part of the discussions between the parties. Rialto provided a majority of the regional board's evidence against the suspected polluters.

"We can only hope that the regional board staff is going to obtain the emergency cleanup that this community needs," said Bob Owen, Rialto's city attorney.

Scott said at the next council meeting on Dec. 4, he hopes the council will vote to recommend Schwarzenegger ask the EPA to declare the 160-acre site a Superfund site.

Also on Wednesday, Thibeault ordered Ken Thompson, who owns land above the McLaughlin Pit, which is a major source of perchlorate contamination, to conduct a soil and groundwater investigation.

Rialto Pursues State Aid Over Perchlorate Plume (Press Enterprise; November 24, 2007)

BS Ranch Perspective

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

By MARY BENDER
The Press-Enterprise

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.

Rialto Seeks $23Million for Perchlorate Cleanup

Rialto seeks $23M for perchlorate cleanup

By Jason Pesick, Staff Writer Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

RIALTO - City officials are seeking $23 million in emergency funds from the state because of perchlorate contamination in the drinking water. The contamination is not new nor has an emergency been officially declared, but Rialto has been battling the perchlorate for years. It found its way into the groundwater from the past manufacturing at industrial facilities of military rockets, fireworks and other explosives. On Aug. 29, members of the City Council met in Sacramento with a number of state officials, including Dan Dunmoyer, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's deputy chief of staff. Dunmoyer suggested that Rialto look into declaring a state of emergency. "It's the only way we can get emergency funds from the governor. We have to do it," said Councilman Ed Scott, concerning the possible declaration of a state of emergency. Scott is a member of the council's perchlorate subcommittee. The council will likely vote at its next meeting on whether to declare the emergency, he said. Perchlorate, which could cause a number of health effects by interfering with the thyroid, has been flowing through Rialto from industrial sites on the city's north end. It could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up. The contamination has generated more attention in Sacramento since last month, when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge halted state hearings to determine if three companies - Pyro Spectaculars, Goodrich and Black & Decker - should have to clean some of the contamination. The city laid out its funding request in a letter to Cindy Tuck, undersecretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. The city would use the money to stop the perchlorate from continuing to move through the Rialto Basin and contaminating more clean water. Much of the money Rialto requested would also help the city better understand the extent of the contamination. Rialto has developed plans that spell out what needs to be done in order to better understand the total cleanup cost and the extent of the contamination. The city wants to use the state money to gather that information, Scott said. Then Rialto could take out an insurance policy, and parties, such as the suspected polluters, would pay into the policy, to guarantee that the cleanup would be paid for. "We are seeking an emergency cleanup while we urge the state to toughen its enforcement effort against the (potentially responsible parties)," reads the letter, signed by Scott and City Council member Winnie Hanson, the other member of the perchlorate subcommittee. In another move that could provide Rialto with millions of dollars in cleanup money, the state Assembly last week amended legislation, which had already passed in the Senate, to provide about $50 million in remaining Proposition 84 money for drinking water cleanup. The money set aside by the Assembly amendment should go to the poorest, most populated and most contaminated areas, said Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland. Perata wrote the original bill. "So Rialto of course is included in that group," Trost said. Scott said he hopes Rialto can get $15 to $20 million of that money. Both Assembly chambers were expected to vote on the legislation during an all-night session on Tuesday. Contact writer Jason Pesick at (909) 386-3861 or via e-mail at jason.pesick@sbsun.com. _______________________________________________ BS Ranch Perspective: I am wondering why they are still finding ways to fix a problem that is a Health Risk to the Public, Yet according to this report the people of Rialto has been Drinking the Contaminated Water the whole time, yet they are just now getting to a point where they are coming up with a Figure where it will cost them to clean it up? So I am at a loss here, the people of Rialto either is not Informed on this subject and they don't really know what they are drinking or what they have been drinking, over this time that the city has been fighting for a bundle of cash to clean up the mess. The other part that is funny or fishy is that there is nobody named where the $23Million is coming from to help the people ? The other part that delivers some concern is that there might be a little bit of Conflict of Interest with the City Council Member being on the Board to make sure that the City Water Department gets a whole lot of money in his, I Mean, their pockets!! It is great that there is money that is Finally being named, for the city of Rialto. It is weird when all the County Water Agencies, Namely West Valley Water District, which also serves a great deal of the Northern Homes and businesses in Rialto didn't have much trouble getting funding for their filtration systems that were needed to clean out the Perchlorate from the water that they had from the North End of Rialto, where they Serve, North of Baseline Ave. Colton also was not mentioned in the Papers or their city council wasn't named in the news on Perchlorate, yet when the contamination was first mentioned Colton's water Wells were found to have Perchlorate in the wells! Perchlorate was funded and cleaned up, without any public needs regarding Colton's clean up of the Perchlorate. Fontana Water District also was fixed up and cleaned out as well! Fontana also had the Reverse Osmosis Filtration systems that were attached their wells, at the cost of approximately a $1 to $2Million a filtration system, and Fontana, has approximately six or seven lined up on Baseline alone. Yet they were not put in the News Papers, nor were they put in the News Papers with a huge story, I could be wrong and I might be, but I don't remember seeing one. So for Rialto to be still fighting for monies that should have been paid in filtration equipment, tells me one thing that they wanted the money for something other then what it might have been intended for? (I pray that I am way off on my feelings here) But here it is!! I am starting to question the leadership as I have done in the past, but I feel that the $23,000,000.00 million is needed to pay back the bill that has been aqumilated by Owen in the work that his office has done in this matter. The rest of the Money is needed to pay the people at the Airport with whom the city has a contract with to get them moved to San Bernardino Airport, and pay their rent for the next few years, (I am not sure on how many years that the city is requred to pay for their rent for their newly built hangers, paid for by the people that live in Rialto). Then they will use some of that money to also work with the Eviromental Protection Agency to get started on the clean up of the Perchlorate in the water supply on the closed down wells in the City of Rialto. They will also ask Target to get started on their portain of developing the area Linden ave @ Walnut Ave, Right where the Cellular Towers currently are and the main Hangers are, where Linden Meets Miro Way! Great huh, shopping at it greatest, not to mention that Rialto might even ask Target to assist them in building the roads connecting Linden Ave from the North end of through where the Airport used to be and then there will be some kind of Art Scholl Ave in Art's Honor, after all Art did an Awful lot to work on expanding Rialto Airport, he saw what it could bring to Rialto, But since there isn't a Visionary Like Art around anymore the Airport is not in the plans for Rialto. It's a shame that Art has past, becuase his vision was to have a larger airport, which many of the people of Rialto was following, but when Art Passed his idea's past with him, I am really sorry to say!! But then when Ed Scott was in there, he knew Art Schol's Dream with the expantion of the Airport, But they didn't put the right person in to run or espand the airport. Chino on the other hand is doing great, there expantion has turned a profit for their city!! Why not for the city of Rialto?? Has to do with Managment, nothing more!! Now I hope that they don't Mess up their New Venture, which in some ways it seems that they are off to very slow start, and now they are stalling, the start of the closure of hte airport, and the sale of the property, or the moving of the people that rent at Rialto Airport. I imagine that is becuse the City of Rialto is Broke!! BROKE BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN CHASING OWENS MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR VENTURE(for Owen's not the City of Rialto), REFERENCE THE PERCHACHORATE CONTAMINATION OF THE GROUND WATER IN RIALTO!! Now I really hope that I am wrong about Owen's and his Law Firm, and that the people that are on the City Council are really doing it to help the City of Rialto and they are not on the Council for any other. It has been in the past that there has been some underhanded deals that have come across that they are in their positions not for Rialto or the people that live in Rialto but the money that they can get their hands on in Rialto, and when a person talks to them they talk down and cut off and disrespectfully push away these people, sad to know that they do this. When it was the fight between the Chief of Police or the Sheriff of the County of San Bernardino, they held their ground, and it made me wonder what did the County of San Bernardino have for them waiting for them, Candy of some kind was on their back pourch if they were to get the Sheriff to be the New Crime Ambasidor for the City of Rialto, with the Sheriff Assigning a new Capt. as a Chief. to Rialto. and then they would go there. there would have been so much lost if the city council whould have allowed the county to have been the I might be wrong I pray that I am wrong, but I am starting to have questions!! Especially for the amount that they are asking for. It is a good amount to start the rebuilding and change of an Airport to a new place to live. BS Ranch!