WATER AGENCY AGREES TO UPGRADES; HYDROGEN PEROXIDE LEAK IN OCTOBER YIELDS STATE CITATION.Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer 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 has agreed to 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. . In a Dec. 28 letter to the Health Services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract Department, the agency general manager agreed to the terms of a two-count citation, agreeing to install monitoring devices for hydrogen peroxide, and to update the agency's existing operation and maintenance plan. The monitoring system has already been installed, said Robert DiPrimio, a member of the water agency board and a special committee formed to investigate an Oct. 8 chemical leak at the agency's Rio Vista Water Treatment Plant in Saugus that resulted in some tainted water. DiPrimio, president of the Valencia Water Co., said Tuesday that he never believed the chemical caused a health hazard health hazard Occupational safety Any agent or activity posing a potential hazard to health. Cf Physical hazard. , but was concerned about the operations at the plant following the initial leak. ``It was a big deal from an operational point of view,'' he said. ``But from a health and safety point of view, I don't think so. I don't think customers were at risk.'' State health officials cited the agency Dec. 18 for two violations: a failure to report the events following the leak and a failure to provide potable potable /pot·a·ble/ (po´tah-b'l) fit to drink. po·ta·ble adj. Fit to drink; drinkable. potable fit to drink. drinking water to customers, according to documents obtained Tuesday. The leak itself was not the problem. The citation concerns the way agency officials handled it. Thirty thousand gallons of a 50 percent solution of the chemical was dumped into a wash water recovery basin for dilution. Hydrogen peroxide is used on rare occasions to treat water tainted by algae algae (ăl`jē) [plural of Lat. alga=seaweed], a large and diverse group of primarily aquatic plantlike organisms. These organisms were previously classified as a primitive subkingdom of the plant kingdom, the thallophytes (plants that growing in Castaic Lake. Safety standards call for diluting the chemical with a large amount of water, but because there was no agency monitoring system, the tainted water was returned to the plant before it had fully dissipated, state officials said in documents. Also, the incident was not reported to the state, as required, the citation said. On Oct. 14, the private Santa Clarita Water Co. and Valencia Water Co., customers of the agency, received several complaints from customers of water that was foul smelling, strange tasting and odd colored. The agency responded to the probe by appointing DiPrimio's committee and hiring a consultant who will prepare a full report for the state within 90 days of the citation. |
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