Wells back in use

June Casagrande

NEWPORT-MESA -- Wells taken out of service after a potentially

cancer-causing chemical was detected are again providing water to Costa

Mesa and Newport Beach.

Mesa Consolidated Water District, which provides water to Costa Mesa,

stopped providing water from its three wells on Jan. 29 after the Orange

County Water District announced it had found traces of the industrial

solvent known as “1,4-Dioxane” in the county’s aquifer. Newport Beach

also stopped service from its wells in Fountain Valley in response to the

discovery.

“The amounts represent a very insignificant health risk,” said Diana

Leach, general manager of the Mesa Consolidated Water District. “The

wells were taken off line due to our caution. We wanted to assess the

situation by getting more information.”

After discussions with the state’s Department of Health Services and

on the recommendation of the Orange County Water District, Mesa district

officials and Newport Beach officials decided to resume water delivery

from all the wells on Wednesday.

Wells throughout Costa Mesa and Fountain Valley have shown 1,4-Dioxane

levels of anywhere from four parts per billion to 20 parts per billion.

At the level of 300 parts per billion, health authorities recommend

stopping using wells. When amounts of three parts per billion are

detected, officials recommend that water providers monitor the situation.

No standards exist that require water agencies to stop service because of

1,4-Dioxane.

“People should have full confidence that we are putting the wells back

in service because they meet all standards and in fact exceed them,”

Leach said. “High-quality water is being delivered. We would not consider

doing anything to affect peoples’ confidence in us or the water that they

drink.”

She added that the well water is mixed with water from other sources,

which further dilutes the threat of 1,4-Dioxane.

The switch back to wells ends a costly situation for the two cities,

which were paying about twice as much to import water as it costs to

provide it from the wells.

“This has been a wake-up call for us to realize that we have to

protect our ground-water basin,” Newport Beach Assistant City Manager

Dave Kiff said. “We’ll continue to monitor levels of 1,4-Dioxane to make

sure the levels don’t change. At the current levels, we don’t need to be

concerned, but the important message here is that we have to take much

greater care of our waste water because at some point it’s recycled into

drinking water.”