[CPEO-MEF] California perchlorate bills

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Gideon,

Please post this as an MEF message from Jonathan Parfrey <parfrey@psr.org>

LS

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Protect the Health of Californians from Toxic Military Pollution
Contact Your State Legislators Today!
 
Some very important bills are now making their way through their State
Capitol in Sacramento. We need your help to support these bills. 

Safe Drinking Water | SB 1004 (Soto) | SB 922 (Soto)
 
Rocket-fuel has poisoned water supplies for millions of Californians.
Thanks to carelessness by military corporations and bases, the rocket
fuel component, perchlorate, has contaminated more than 300 California
water supplies. Beginning in the '50s, missile manufacturers flushed the
fuel out of rockets and left it to sink into the ground directly above
aquifers-key sources of water. Rocket fuel has additionally polluted the
Colorado River, which supplies drinking water to most of Southern
California. It has also been found in water sources for numerous
communities throughout the state, including the Inland Empire, Los
Angeles County, Orange County, Sonoma County and the Sacramento region.
 
SB 1004 would require owners of facilities that have disposed of
perchlorate since January 1st, 1950 to disclose to the State Water
Resources Control Board and its regional affiliate's information on the
volume of perchlorate disposed of, method of disposal and history of
leaks of perchlorate into the environment from the facility. The bill
would also require any person or entity that leaks perchlorate into a
California water body or supply to immediately notify the State Water
Resources Control Board. The cost of the reporting system will be paid
for by polluters, who will pay a filing fee not greater than $50 for
each report. 
 
Although drinking water contamination harms public health and can cost
local communities hundreds of millions of dollars, polluters often argue
that the public should shoulder the burden of costs of providing
replacement water. SB 922 makes it explicitly clear that the State Water
Resources Control Board can require polluters to provide communities
harmed by drinking water contamination to provide replacement water. The
bill would require civil penalties imposed for a failure to meet these
requirements to be deposited in the State Water Pollution Cleanup and
Abatement Account for expenditure by the state board, upon appropriation
by the Legislature, to carry out the act.
 
Please write your state Assemblymember to support these two bills:
 
Honorable <first name> <last name>
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
 
We thank our friends at Environment California 
http://www.environmentcalifornia.org
for their help in crafting the above section.

Jonathan Parfrey <parfrey@psr.org>

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Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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