WATER AGENCIES FILE SUIT COURT ASKED TO PINPOINT LIABILITY FOR CLEANING UP ROCKET FUEL BYPRODUCT.Byline: Heather MacDonald and Lisa Mascaro 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, - Four local water agencies sued Wednesday to force the owners of the former Bermite munitions mu·ni·tion n. War materiel, especially weapons and ammunition. Often used in the plural. tr.v. mu·ni·tioned, mu·ni·tion·ing, mu·ni·tions To supply with munitions. factory site to clean groundwater contamination that has shut down four city wells. Frustrated by stalled negotiations and the closure of the wells needed in dry years, officials of the agencies said they have a plan to begin immediately removing perchlorate perchlorate: see chlorate. , a byproduct by·prod·uct or by-prod·uct n. 1. Something produced in the making of something else. 2. A secondary result; a side effect. Noun 1. of rocket fuel, from the groundwater. The lawsuit aims to force the site owner, Remediation Financial Inc. and its Santa Clarita LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control , and the past owner, Whittaker Corp., to pay for the cleanup. ``We hope the lawsuit will bring all of the parties to the table (and) will result in a quicker solution,'' said the Castaic Lake Water Agency general manager, Robert Sagehorn. ``We were getting nowhere just meeting.'' Remediation Financial Inc. attorney Wayne Souza would not comment on specifics of the lawsuit filed by Castaic Lake, its Santa Clarita Water Division, the Newhall County Water District and Valencia Water Company. ``Obviously, this is unfortunate and regrettable, and I guess my first reaction was, if it's the community's goal to clean up the groundwater quickly, we don't think this lawsuit will accomplish that goal,'' said Souza. A Whittaker Corp. official declined to comment. State officials claim perchlorate leached into the soil and groundwater while the munitions factory was operated by Whittaker Corp. before state and federal government adopted most environmental protection laws. The Santa Clarita City Council has conditionally approved a 3,000-home development on the site - if it is first certified by state officials as having been cleaned up. Sagehorn said the water agencies want the four wells decontaminated or replaced with wells drilled to the north where the water has not been 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. . If that is impossible without risk of spreading the contamination, he said, then the agencies want current and former owners of the Bermite site to pay for replacing the polluted water from another source, possibly state supplies. Environmentalists and officials from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control have expressed fear that reopening the wells or drilling new ones could expand the pollution plume and make it more difficult to clean up. Sagehorn said the water agencies want to use the ion exchange ion exchange n. A reversible chemical reaction occurring between an insoluble solid and a solution during which ions may be interchanged, used in the separation of radioactive isotopes. method of removing perchlorate from groundwater. While preliminary results for that method have been successful in La Puente, it has not been approved by the state Department of Health Services Department of Health Services may refer to:
supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. . Sagehorn said he believes the state will soon approve the method for drinking water and, meanwhile, the decontaminated water could be used for other purposes. The lawsuit is also an attempt to force Whittaker representatives to shoulder a share of the cleanup costs. A state toxics-control department spokeswoman, Nancy Carden, said broader investigations of the contamination and cleanup will continue regardless of the lawsuit. Castaic Lake Water Agency officials estimate that it would cost $35 million for an ion-exchange system to begin cleaning the water. |
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