Expedite well cleanup effort

AFTER pollution was discovered in large portions of the San Gabriel Basin, it took 23 years before anyone owned up to it. Thankfully, that is not the case with wells in west Pasadena contaminated with perchlorate, a chemical used to make rocket fuel known to cause thyroid conditions in those exposed, particularly pregnant women.

JPL has taken responsibility for the pollution and is working toward a financial agreement for cleaning four of the nine wells, with the one responsible for contaminating the other five in doubt. In the 1940s and 1950s, spent fuels from JPL were dumped in ponds and allowed to evaporate. Unfortunately, the chemicals worked their way into Pasadena's Raymond Basin, fouling the wells used for drinking water.

Because JPL has agreed to work with Pasadena Water and Power to clean the four wells nearest its property of perchlorate and stop the chemical's spread, the resolution should be academic. That's what we thought, too.

But they must deal with a conflicting, confusing set of governmental bureaucracies which are slowing progress. Today the biggest hurdle is the failure of the state environmental agencies and the federal Environmental Protection Agency to set a "safe level' for perchlorate. Without a threshold level, which scientists have suggested should be in the low parts per billion range, it is difficult for any company to design and build treatment plants.

Last week a judge rejected the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment's attempt to set a drinking water standard for the chemical. The delay means the state will miss the Jan. 1 deadline for a preliminary standard set by the Legislature.

This is unacceptable. State environmental agencies must re- double their efforts to expedite the process, which must culminate in a safe drinking water standard for perchlorate by the Legislative final deadline of Jan. 1, 2004 or sooner. The problem affects more than our region perchlorate was found in 284 water sources in the state and in 19 other states.

Any solution should have the federal Environmental Protection Agency's buy-in. We suggest a short review, and if all is in order, the EPA should support California's effort. We'd prefer cooperation to typical EPA delays and the weakening of environmental laws that have come out of the current administration's environmental agency.

There are no parties fighting over responsibility, as was the case with San Gabriel's ground- water cleanup. No appealing to the feds for exceptions for defense contractors. To JPL's credit, there has been little whining and finger-pointing, which filled years of news stories on the San Gabriel cleanup, which a judge approved in May.

Both cleanup sites have environmental agency traffic jams and political pile-ups to wade through because no matter the degree of corporate responsibility, in government some things never change.