[CPEO-BIF] New plan to clean Ontario, California TCE plume

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Official: To clean up Ontario’s toxic water on the cheap(er), agencies must pounce


By Jim Steinberg
San Bernardino Sun (CA)
December 21, 2016


CHINO - Officials have found a way to save millions of dollars off the cost of cleaning up a toxic plume that has made well water unsafe at some homes in south Ontario.

The nearly 3-mile long plume - which is more than 1-mile wide - was caused in part by companies cleaning aircraft parts at what is now Ontario International Airport from the 1940s through the 1970s. The cleaning agent was trichloroethylene, or TCE, and its continued presence in groundwater south of the airport has forced families to live off of trucked-in water for nearly a decade.

The initial costs for the cleanup will be $12.5 million and be paid for with federal and state grant money, Joe Grindstaff, Inland Empire Utilities Agency general manager, said.

This Chino-based agency, a regional wastewater treatment agency and wholesale distributor of imported water, took the lead developing a multiagency and private business agreement.

“We knew we had this one opportunity and we knew if we didn’t do it, the cost would double or triple,” Grindstaff said in an interview following an informational presentation Wednesday that did not appear to attract the impacted residents.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.dailybulletin.com/environment-and-nature/20161221/official-to-clean-up-ontarios-toxic-water-on-the-cheaper-agencies-must-pounce

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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