U.S. Water News Online
COVINA, Calif. -- A water treatment plant that will help stop the spread of groundwater contamination is now operating at Whittier Narrows Dam. The San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority built the plant at a well drilled by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. The project is designed to capture and remove contaminants from shallow groundwater before the contamination can spread to water wells south of the Whittier Narrows Dam.
Speaking about the importance of groundwater protection, California's Secretary for Resources Mary Nichols said, "Southern California simply cannot prosper without adequate supplies of clean and healthy drinking water. The Whittier Narrows project will help secure that supply for 3 million people by helping keep harmful contamination at bay."
Stanley Young, from the office of the Secretary for Resources, noted that the project is not only cleaning up water, but also is improving wildlife habitat at Whittier Narrows. The Water Quality Authority (WQA) and student volunteers restored native vegetation to the three-acre site by planting hundreds of trees and shrubs.
Young said the project required cooperation by the WQA and the EPA with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the land; the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, which leases the site, a joint powers agency of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which operates an adjoining nature preserve, and students from South El Monte High School, who helped with the planting.
"This unique project could not have been possible without a unique set of cooperative partnerships," Young said. "This cooperation serves as an example of how federal, municipal, and private entities can work together for a common purpose.
"I look forward to coming back here in years to come," Young said, "when the trees will be high, the birds will be singing, children will be playing, and the drinking water that comes from the ground will once again be clean, pure, and healthy."
Steve Salido, a junior at South El Monte High School who represented the 50 students who helped restore the native habitat at the site, said he used to drive by the area daily, but never knew what it was. "Now when I drive by, I know that I'm a part of the area and know that I've done something for my community," Salido said.
Doug Frazer, EPA Remedial Project Manager, said the treatment facility is an important step in safeguarding public health. He said it will treat groundwater in the most highly contaminated portion of Whittier Narrows while the EPA moves forward on its long-range cleanup plan.
He said the WQA deserves credit for acting quickly. "I am very grateful to them for stepping in," Frazer said. "They saw high concentrations (of contamination) in the area; they saw an extraction well sitting there and nothing happening, and they stepped in and agreed to install a treatment facility that is now pumping 1,500 gallons per minute."
WQA undertook the interim measure to keep contamination from spreading from the San Gabriel Basin southward through Whittier Narrows into the Central Basin. Each basin is a drinking water supply for more than 1.4 million people.
Some of the treated water is being used to irrigate the newly planted vegetation on the site. Most of the water is flowing into a creek that runs through the adjoining Bosque del Rio Hondo, a nature preserve in the middle of a dense urban area.
The treatment plant began operation in late December and in less than a month has removed more than 60 pounds of contaminants from thegroundwater. It is the second treatment facility built in the Whittier Narrows area by the WQA. The earlier plant, constructed in nearby South El Monte, removed 219 pounds of contamination from September to December of last year. Most of the contamination is from perchloroethylene (PCE), a solvent used in commercial and industrial processes that entered the ground years ago through disposal practices that are now prohibited.
Return to the U.S. Water News Archives page Or Return to the U.S. Water News Homepage
Editor@uswaternews.com
*Your Name:
*Your Email:
*Friend's Email:
Use a comma to separate e-mail addresses:
*Your Comments:
Hi, I thought you might like to read this article.
*Required Fields