[CPEO-MEF] PERCHLORATE: Olin's shrinking plume, San Martin, CA

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Ten years after toxic plume, Morgan Hill and surrounding communities  
work to find normalcy

By Paul Rogers
San Jose Mercury News (CA)
January 26, 2013

MORGAN HILL -- Ten years ago this month, community leaders were  
shocked by the discovery that a company that manufactured road flares  
here had disposed of toxic chemicals improperly, creating a 10-mile- 
long underground plume of perchlorate, a chemical used in rocket fuel.

The perchlorate tainted hundreds of drinking water wells in southern  
Santa Clara County. It was the most high-profile pollution case in  
Silicon Valley since 1981, when industrial solvents from IBM and  
Fairchild Camera were found to have contaminated groundwater in South  
San Jose, ending high tech's image as a clean industry.

"People worried about the health impacts, but also about 'How am I  
going to sell my house?'" said John English, a longtime San Martin  
resident.

After a decade of cleanup work and millions of dollars in studies,  
however, the perchlorate problem is now slowly ebbing into history.
The plume, which once stretched from Morgan Hill to Gilroy, has  
shrunk from 10 miles long to 1.75 miles long today.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_22454526/ten-years-after-toxic- 
plume-morgan-hill-and

--

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: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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