[CPEO-MEF] Olin - Morgan Hill (CA) perchlorate dispute

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Olin Clean Up Misses the Mark

Tony Burchyns
Gilroy Dispatch
August 25, 2006

Morgan Hill - City officials are fed up with Olin Corporation, the 
company that polluted groundwater in and around Morgan Hill. So they are 
taking their case to the state, where water officials will hear 
arguments that the company's cleanup feasibility study misses the mark. 
It fails to identify how much pollution the company has allegedly caused 
to the South County water basin and how much contaminated water appears 
to be seeping into Morgan Hill's municipal wells, city officials said.

The latter argument has been made by Morgan Hill city officials for more 
than three years, ever since perchlorate was first detected in one of 
the city's public wells after widespread pollution by Olin had been 
reported. The potentially harmful chemical - the Olin plant reportedly 
used 150,000 pounds of it annually for decades to make road flares - has 
now been detected at four city wells, resulting in ratepayers spending 
more than $900,000 since 2003 to clean it up. While those costs cannot 
be recovered from Olin, the city has hinted at future litigation.

All in all, officials say, the city has spent $3 million outfitting 
wells with filters and hiring consultants and attorneys to make the case 
that perchlorate contamination in Morgan Hill stems from Olin.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.gilroydispatch.com/news/contentview.asp?c=193068

--


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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