STADIUM WELL SHUT DOWN TESTS INDICATE PERCHLORATE CONTAMINATION.Byline: Kathleen Sweeney Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, - Officials closed another groundwater well Tuesday after discovering perchlorate perchlorate: see chlorate. had contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. the water. It was the fifth well in the valley to be shut down because of the toxin. The Santa Clarita Water Co. well, known as the Stadium Well, draws from the alluvial aquifer near Saugus Speedway and the Whittaker-Bermite site. Thje well was closed after officials tested the water and discovered it contained a higher than acceptable amount of perchlorate. ``We were expecting this stuff would migrate down the river toward the well,'' said Bill Manetta, president of the Santa Clarita Water Co. ``It wasn't a big surprise, therefore we are on the edge of this plume.'' Officials said the toxin level was noticed during routine quarterly testing last week. Tests showed perchlorate levels at 5.7 parts per billion - just above the Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and requirements for corrective measures if levels are above 4 parts per billion. The well had tested negative for perchlorate in August, which told officials the perchlorate is slowly spreading, Manetta said. The company, a subsidiary of the Castaic Lake Castaic Lake is a lake on Castaic Creek formed by Castaic Dam, in northwestern Los Angeles County, California, near the town of Castaic. The 323,700 acre foot lake (399,000,000 m³) is the terminus of the West Branch of the California Aqueduct, though some comes from the 154 mi² Water Agency, voluntarily shut down the well. The CLWA CLWA Chip-Level Weibull Analysis CLWA Children living with AIDS (Lancaster, OH) is now studying the contamination - the third Santa Clarita Water Co. well to be affected, said Dan Masnada, the agency's general manager. Officials are anxious to start pumping and treating the contaminated well so it will not spread to wells downstream. ``Based on the input of the technical consultants, it did not make sense to allow the status quo [Latin, The existing state of things at any given date.] Status quo ante bellum means the state of things before the war. The status quo to be preserved by a preliminary injunction is the last actual, peaceable, uncontested status which preceded the pending controversy. to continue because all that means is the contaminated surface flow would continue downstream, and there are other wells downstream,'' Masnada said. Santa Clarita Water Co. customers shouldn't be concerned about the contamination, officials said. The well did not produce a high amount of water for users, and it does not run often during winter months. ``They shouldn't be concerned, and part of it has to do with dry weather we have been having and we have lower water level in the wells,'' Masnada explained. ``That's when you start seeing lower water quality in the wells. If it's a wet winter, you may not even detect the perchlorate later on.'' |
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