All’s Not Well With Monrovia’s Water as Pollutant Level Rises

MONROVIA —  The discovery of contamination in two city wells could double residents’ water bills unless rain falls soon to reduce the pollution, officials said this week.

Tests showing rising levels of trichloroethylene, also known as TCE, in the wells came as a blow to city water managers, who have been combining water from the two wells with contaminated water from Monrovia’s three other wells to produce a safe, drinkable blend.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, concerned by contamination levels in the two wells noted late last year, agreed Monday to dispatch a regional water investigator to examine the wells, located at Myrtle and California avenues.

Although the current TCE levels in the wells--measured at 2.6 parts per billion--are allowable under state standards, they may soon become too high for blending, which could force the city to purchase large quantities of clean water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

The city currently draws about 9,000 acre feet of water from its wells each year. It would have to purchase an equivalent amount from the water district if the well contamination increases, as is expected unless rainfall dilutes the water supply, city officials said.

The Main San Gabriel Basin has been on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund list since 1985, with cleanup costs estimated at $800 million. Investigators believe that a massive underground plume of contamination is moving southward through the valley toward Whittier Narrows at a rate of one mile every five years.

Monrovia now spends $108 per acre foot--about 326,000 gallons--to pump and deliver its water to 8,500 customers. MWD water costs $233 an acre foot, said Paul Smith, Monrovia’s utilities division manager.

A household consuming 1,500 cubic feet of water--11,250 gallons--per month pays about $15, Smith said. If the city has to buy water, the monthly bill per household would increase to about $30.

Another alternative would be to build a $1-million treatment facility, an option that the city put off two years ago because regional water authorities believed then that the plume of contamination was migrating from the area, Public Works Director Bob Sandwick said. The city also had reservations about the cost of constructing the facility.

The investigator from the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board’s toxics division, which works with the EPA, will team up with city staff members within a month to examine possible sources of contamination within half a mile radius of the wells. An electronics firm, a former landfill and homes are located nearby.

Hank Yacoub, director of the water board’s toxics division, said it is unclear why the Monrovia levels are rising at this time. “Monrovia is at the boundary of the contamination plume,” he said. “If this thing goes way up, there’s got to be a (contamination) source. If it stays marginal, (the wells’ pumps) could be pulling regional ground water in.”

He said the pollution levels are heightened because the state is entering its fourth year of drought. The ground water level beneath the city dropped 50 feet from its 1984 level, he said, increasing the concentration of contaminants.

Mayor Bob Bartlett said he is not too concerned about the contamination because Monrovia has ready access to Metropolitan Water District water if the city’s wells become unusable.

“It’s going to cost us more money, but we’ll do whatever we need to protect the people,” he said. The contamination levels are “something we want to watch and stay on top of.”

The maximum TCE concentration allowed under state Health Services Department regulations is five parts per billion. At that level, there is a risk that one in a million people would develop cancer as a result of drinking the water over a 70-year period, Yacoub said. He added that the standard is “extremely conservative.”

Bill Van Buskirk, president of the San Gabriel Valley Superfund Working/Information Group, a citizens watchdog association, agreed. “We recognize there are safe limits,” said Van Buskirk, a Monrovia resident. He noted, however, that the latest contamination discovery at the two wells underscores the group’s complaints that cleanup efforts are moving too slowly.

City officials have known about pollution in Monrovia’s other three wells--located at Myrtle and Longden avenues--since 1981, said Tony Zampiello, the city’s utility production supervisor. Most recent testing of those wells shows TCE levels ranging from 2.5 to 5.6 parts per billion, while concentrations at the two cleaner wells have been negligible until recently, Smith said.

The city recorded a high of 2.4 parts per billion in its weekly tests of the two wells in January, 1989, but levels plummeted to 0.3 after heavy rain in February, 1989.

The level began climbing again last fall and reached 2.6 in January.

“It hasn’t dropped since,” Smith said.