AGENCIES DIFFER ON SOLUTION.

Byline: Heather MacDonald Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - In the San Gabriel Valley, four public water agencies agreed to front money to install expensive treatments to rid three area wells of perchlorate contamination and pay for their operation.

In the Santa Clarita Valley, a public water agency sued the developer of the former Bermite munitions factory, hoping to force the company to pay for a similar ion-exchange system to clean four municipal wells also contaminated with perchlorate.

As the furor over the future of 1,000 acres in the center of Santa Clarita heats up, much of the debate surrounds the property's groundwater - and how to rid the wells quickly and efficiently of perchlorate, a byproduct of rocket fuel that is linked to thyroid problems.

Water agency officials constantly point to the San Gabriel Valley, and express frustration at the slow pace of the cleanup in Santa Clarita. But a comparison of the two brown fields shows many differences, and highlights the difficulty inherent in cleaning up former industrial pollution.

``We've been talking about this problem for years,'' said Mary Lou Cotton, the assistant to the general manager of the Castaic Lake Water Agency. ``It is time to start doing something.''

Perchlorate was discovered at both sites in 1997. In the San Gabriel Valley, the pollution was caused by Aerojet and 18 other aerospace companies, said Michael Berlien, the general manager of the La Puente Valley County Water District. The polluted wells are part a federally identified Superfund site.

``To this day, the Superfund has been neither super nor a fund,'' Berlien said. ``It is a huge economic burden, but somebody needed to do something.''

While the Environmental Protection Agency has blessed the well-head ion-exchange cleanup effort, Berlien said, it is not overseeing the project. Neither the source of the perchlorate contamination nor the scope of the pollution plume has been investigated or cleaned, Berlien said.

``That's not how to clean groundwater,'' said John Naginis, an engineering geologist working on the Santa Clarita project for the state Department of Toxic Substances. ``If you just clean the wells - and leave the chemicals in the ground - chances are they'll just leach back into the water. And you run the risk of spreading the pollution as you pump the wells.''

In Santa Clarita, the DTSC is investigating the source, size and scope of the perchlorate plume and has yet to determine what needs to be done to clean the four municipal wells that were capped because of the perchlorate. CLWA officials said they are chafing at the slow pace of the cleanup.

``It is extremely frustrating, especially when the perchlorate was discovered at the same time in the San Gabriel Valley and they're actually doing something about it,'' Cotton said.

Aerojet and some of the other companies that polluted the water in the San Gabriel Valley have reimbursed the water agencies for some of the $5 million spent to build the ion-exchange system, the only technology approved by the state Department of Health to produce drinking water. Annually, it costs about $750,000 to operate the system. Officials expect it to take 20 years to complete the cleanup effort.

CLWA engineers, who believe the plume under the old munitions factory to be more extensive than the one in San Gabriel, estimate that construction costs would total $15 million with annual operating costs of about $1 million, Cotton said.

The water agency filed suit to make sure Santa Clarita LLC and its parent company would be held liable for those costs, Cotton said.

``We know we're more than likely going to have to front these costs,'' Cotton said. ``We just want to make sure they understand we hold them financially responsible, as they are under the law.''

Before the lawsuit was filed, DTSC and officials from Santa Clarita LLC often kicked ideas around informally and enjoyed an easy rapport, Naginis said.

``Now, that atmosphere has changed because of the lawsuit,'' Naginis said.

Alan Berg, the Porta Bella project manager, said the lawsuit has slowed the cleanup effort considerably.

``Energies that would have been spent on the cleanup effort have now been directed toward defending the lawsuit,'' Berg said.

Also hindering the process is a lack of communication between the developer of the troubled land and CLWA - a problem also not faced in the San Gabriel Valley.

``At the very least there is a disconnect between the water agencies and the developer, and that's a real problem,'' Lambert said. ``And that problem is unique to Santa Clarita.''