Bottled water and perchlorate

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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Don't let Olin off the bottled water hook just yet

By Tom Mulhern
Gilroy Dispatch (Opinion) (CA)
April 27, 2004

Last Wednesday's The Dispatch carried an article by Eric Leins reporting
how Olin was asking the state of California to let it discontinue
supplying bottled water to the residents of about 600 households because
contamination levels tested below 6 parts per billion.

I couldn't help but think that this is how the long battle against Olin
will go. In fact, I'd be perplexed if it went any other way.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Olin would want to eliminate the
million-dollars-a-year program of giving bottled water to South Valley
residents. If you ran a company, wouldn't you look for ways to save
money? But it does surprise me that their basis would be something as
flimsy as an almost imperceptible change in the amount of perchlorates
in the groundwater, rather than some major drop in levels. If there were
some sort of trend - say if concentrations had dropped consistently from
50 parts per billion down to 25 and then to 10 and then to 6, then you
might be inclined to say, "Well, the trend seems to be going in the
right direction."

But in this case, it seems that many of the wells that tested for
contamination haven't been repeatedly retested, and the difference of 4
ppb, 5 ppb, or 6 ppb doesn't exactly scream "Big Change!" These cited
differences could be testing errors, changes due to seasonal
fluctuations in the aquifer because of winter runoff, or any number of
statistical quirks? You'd expect more dramatic changes to occur before
saying that the aquifer was on the road to recovery and that it's okay
for people to drink the water again.

...

for the entire column, see
http://gilroydispatch.com/opinion/opinionview.asp?c=105742

--


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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