Treatment May Have National Implications

California water officials said on August 11 that they would undertake a pilot remedial project that, if successful, could have national implications. The project will determine whether perchlorate, which contaminates many U.S. groundwater resources, can be effectively and cost-effectively degraded.

Three Valleys Municipal Water District officials said they would test a combined ion exchange/biological process. Ion exchange is used to segregate the perchlorate; the biological process degrades it for disposal.

The biological process is a development of Aerojet General (Sacramento) and employs proprietary microorganisms derived from baby-food production. Authorities plan to build a 500-GPM plant in Baldwin Park next year that would clean the water to 4 ppb-bettering state standard. If the 500-GPM plant proves successful, the district will build a 19,000 GPM facility.

Officials said that none of the water would serve public use until proven safe. The pilot project awaits U.S. EPA approval.

A joint group of water districts and local firms in 1997 developed a plan with the U.S. EPA to remove VOCs from water beneath Baldwin Park, Azusa, and Irwindale. Action on the plan was suspended in September after discovery in June that the water contained the rocket fuel component, perchlorate. A technique for detecting perchlorate at very low levels did not exist until April 1997.

Reported by Paul Hersch