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Scott Pruitt and the EPA are reviewing whether to add the Orange County North Basin to their ‘national priority listing’ – aka, the ‘superfund’ sites list- a matter that’s drawn shockingly little attention from some local players, even if it connects to steamy tales about Pruitt’s shenanigans.
Public comments on the proposed listing closed Friday evening, May 18. So far…there are some voices in this discussion that are frighteningly silent.
The matter seems important. According to the Orange County Water District (OCWD), 75% of the water supply for 22 cities and 2.5 million residents comes from this groundwater basin. And at least four or five of the wells have been rendered unusable recently as a result of ‘industrial contamination.’ OCWD appears to have put out a call to the EPA some years ago. Every mayor, administrator, and legislator who deemed this worth chiming in on expressed support for OCWD’s effort to declare the site a ‘superfund’ site. Their brief, 1-2 page form letters generally read as follows:
- The City of [Garden Grove, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, Placentia, Laguna Woods, Tustin, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, etc.] currently draws most of its water supply from the Orange County Groundwater Basin. This supply is critically important to our community. The water’s quality, volume, and affordable cost represent much more than a simple commodity; our water supply constitutes a central element of the community itself.
- As your agency knows, it is critically important to protect this water resource from legacy industrial contamination in the North Basin. So please list it!
Comments from private individuals run a gamut from residents concurring with these officials, to others calling for unrelated efforts – my favorites of these are a call to ban importing rare earths from China (because they caused tragedies in….Zaire? A country that hasn’t even used that name for more than 20 years?), and the commentator who claimed “President Tiny Hands deserves a spot on the ‘national priorities list'”. I’d treat these as ‘neutral.’
Against all this, after reviewing every comment submitted so far, I found only three commenters opposed to the proposal to list the site as a superfund site:
- The Orange County Business Council (OCBC) and the North Orange County Chamber – both of which appear to believe that additional time is needed, that the site shouldn’t be listed until after feasibility studies are complete (in 2020-2021), and that after a decade of litigation between the Orange County Water District and local businesses/property owners, there’s just too much to be done before considering a listing as a superfund site.
- Dr. Denise Stanley, the only individual among the commentators so far who questioned the listing (and in her case, she merely seems to want a benefit-cost analysis performed first).
OCWD has a pretty harsh answer for OCBC: “Yeah, a bunch of your members caused this problem, have known about it in detail for pretty much forever, and a bunch went out of business long ago to leave others to fix this mess. That’s why we need a superfund listing.”
This is just a survey of the commentary: not the lengthy background, the involved litigation, or the stakes: I honestly cannot say that the loss of four or five of some 60 wells reflects a threat to the water supply. That’s why we hire water administrators, and hope they’re good enough at their jobs to prevent such a threat.
However, there are some glaring omissions among the commentators: where are the Orange County supervisors, especially Nelson, in whose district this lies? Don’t they realize that a possible superfund listing would have broad repercussions for everyone in that region? Are they too busy to chime in publicly with the one authority that actually counts?
Unless he’s too busy retiring, one would expect Ed Royce‘s office to chime in (Lowenthal did, but other congress members have steered clear for now.) If over a decades’ worth of litigation took place about businesses in his district, why isn’t Royce offering his insight? Or his staffers? Were they all sleeping at the wheel? Or is this decision about the listing a ‘silly triviality’ – and there are higher priorities than safe drinking water for the residents of Fullerton, Anaheim, Placentia (and the other 15 or so cities that chimed in)?
Indeed, where are any of the candidates for office in the 39th District, ground central in the dispute? Cisneros? Young Kim? Huff? Jammal? Thorburn? Again, Nelson? For those who are holding an office, if they’ve done nothing on this matter for decades, what good have they done? And for those seeking office, where is their public statement in the one forum where public statements are not only invited, but required as part of the regulatory process?
Thanks for posting and inserting the graphics, Vern.
I was tempted to dump Young Kim as an extension of Royce’s office – but it does make sense to expect her to weigh in if she thinks she ought to be representing the district now. Quirk-Silva did sign on and send in her own version of the letter.
Quite a few of the anonymous and ‘tangential’ comments could have been misfiled, either by the EPA or more likely by the senders (e.g., comparing air quality in China with America). One or two merely attacked ‘climate science.’ I treated all of those as ‘neutral’ on this topic, since they took no clear stand on whether to list the site.
I hope some candidates take a position before the extended deadline passes tomorrow.
Who is Donovan?
That’s some good info!
This isn’t a small problem.
Any major agency in North Orange County that opposes a sensible approach–which this is– ought to be disbanded.
We’re talking about basic ethics.
Get it cleaned up.
I think everyone agrees that cleanup must happen: the big questions are who picks the cleaners, who pays for them, who declares when it is ‘clean’?
The LAT and OCR treatment gives broad deference to the views of the OCBC, as if they were more important than the other commentators. No doubt; easier for a lobbyist to reach a journalist than a journalist to reach someone else who promises to get back to them – after deadlines pass.
Yet surely the supervisors really OUGHT to have said or done something – yay or nea. Surely the drinking water for 2.5 million residents of OC is more important than their other priorities?
There’s still 21 hours to get your own views sent to the EPA. I’m mulling over whether to send my own, or to try to encourage others to speak up to the extent I can.
That’s the one thing missing from the story, Donovan … can you put up the contact info for sending comments — just stick the link or whatever in your response to this comment, and I’ll make it prominent in the story.
Short answer: http://www.regulations.gov, search for EPA North OC water basin, and it’ll pull up a few thousand docs. I’ll get clearer instructions later tonight and post an edit.
“Yet surely the supervisors really OUGHT to have said or done something”
Not under the County’s jurisdiction.
Not under their jurisdiction? Do you know how many county wide effects a superfund site has?
That’s why it went to OCWD (actual jurisdiction) then the EPA.
Dave is correct. Not much for the county to do.
Note that more than a dozen mayors of towns that also have nothing they can do but are concerned about their water supply chimed in – even though they’re far away from the jurisdiction. So did a number of legislators from districts outside this area. So did a number of residents within this area, who have no jurisdiction whatsoever but still care about the water supply. Simply weighing in matters, but only to people who care about the water supply for 2.5 million OC residents. I would assume that includes the supervisors, even if actually arranging a cleanup is NOT within their jurisdiction (and I never suggested it was – only that it’s an item of concern).
Yeah, I’m on board with that, D.
That’s because cities provide water to their residents through city owned pipes. The County doesn’t.
*You guys are so funny……we told you that the wells were polluted with perchlorates and gypsophates and lots of rocket fuel and MTBE’s and now Ethanol…..but no…..you just wanted to hear the elevator music and keep going. This is the very reason why the land at El Toro for the Veterans Cemetery would have been perfect. When the county tries to put mixed use Residential and Commercial on that land, when the Trumpster years are over the whole area will be condemned. There is so much Jet Fuel and Solvents in the Ground Water and land…..you wouldn’t believe it. Oh well, we are still trying to get you guys to buy some stock in Poseidon and go down the road….but not everyone sees 20-20 as you know.
HEY. PAY ATTENTION.
They’re planning to take the water from that plant and dump it into this aquafer.
You understand now?
In 1959, they had something on TV called: “The Big Picture”! We suggest that all those Yellow Smiley Faces that came out in the 1960’s…..aren’t exactly solutions to our ongoing problems. Try 27 polluted wells, seawater barriers and pollution …..and of course our wonderful Santa Ana River.
. . . . SMH.
The bigger picture is if you assume what you say is true, putting clean water in with dirty water isn’t very smart, is it?
*Yeah, so you are a Reclaim guy? You watered your plants for 15 years with Reclaim water, flushed your toilet with Reclaim Water? OK RC you are impossible to convince and we are definitely at fault for trying to turn the head of a stone statue. We apologize! Just sad to have people not understand how deep are the wells? Not very deep in the summer. The pollutants gather at the bottom with other heavy metals….and spray right onto your body….every summer….without any problem right? You are so fixated on the process of Desalination…..that you probably haven’t even take the tour of the Plant in Oceanside/Carlsbad have you? We guess the Age of Enlightenment here behind the Orange Curtain will remain for some time to come. No problem….but you fool your friends and we will fool ours!
Read slowly.
They are going to take your clean desalinated water, then discharge it into the existing aquafer.
It will then commingle with the existing water and what comes with it.
Meaning your clean water is now dirty (if you believe what you’re saying.)
This is what your advocating for, a plan that literally opposes the view you hold so dear.
Recycled water and tours have nothing to do with anything. Before you type whatever it is you are about to type, stop, and reread this comment again.
Out loud if it helps.
*Yada, yada, yada. So, you drink Reclaim water out of a hose and give it to your dog to drink out of the toilet. OK…..we get it. Your water is great…our water is overpriced and unnecessary. Is this the complete book report….you wanted us to understand? (The operational words in your response was: “They are going to…;.” You can document that can you?
Let’s see the complete report if you will. So, you haven’t been through the tour and you are talking about their future plans? Sounds right to us…NOT!
Your inability to read is astounding.
*And your inability to grasp reality is staggering! What, you are Peer Swan drink the same Cool-Aid?
*Give up Ryan. It won’t be good for anybody if your head explodes.
It’s probably good that these guys are Poseidon’s voice on this blog, it helps us with the hundreds of undecided readers.
I think drawing a picture might work, Vern.
Maybe even two colors!
So far, only about 5 of the wells appear to have been deemed contaminated; my understanding is there are remediation tests and studies underway, and concerns about the chemical plume seeping into other wells.
Whatever happens with other water ventures, this place needs to be cleaned up.
OK: here’s a link: https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=EPA-HQ-OLEM-2017-0603
Click the “comment now” button that pops up on the National Priorities List main entry, which will disappear tomorrow evening. If you wish to sign a formal letter, on behalf of yourself or an organization you represent, you can attach that to a comment and upload it as a PDF through the same system.
Can’t update my post; Vern – could you put that up there so it gets more attention? It takes only a few second to submit a quick letter through a web form, but if one wants to go fancy, could take quite a bit longer.
Done!
I think I gotta upgrade yours and Ryan’s status or something.
BTW, in case anyone’s confused, the “comments close tonight” reference in the headline is to comments on the EPA/federal government ‘public comments’ section: you have a narrow window of time to send a message to the EPA that cleaning this mess up matters to you (or doesn’t, if you swing that way).
I imagine anyone who cares to may comment freely HERE for as long as you wish – about the desal/Poseidon venture, or any other water issue. It’s just that you should NOT expect anyone in Washington to care all that much about comments on even so esteemed a blog as this – but they’re required to at least solicit public comments when considering a regulatory change, as this most assured would be a big one.
Of course Donovan, of course. OUR comments section is like Norm’s – it NEVER closes.
LOL, I know you got it. Just not sure anyone else who reads did. I sent mine in yesterday; am curious if I’ll spot some more comments next week.
Sorry Donovan.
The old man has been babbling nonsense about desal for years.
I’ve unfortunately made it a mission to get him to understand he’s arguing against his own position.
Quite frustrating.
Oh shit, now we’re all on notice.
UPDATE: When I posted this here, there were 73 comments from the public on this matter – by the time the EPA closed the period for public comments, there were 87; more may be listed soon, depending on how the EPA does this.
In terms of candidates for the 39th Congressional district (where the plume is located), I found the following: https://cisnerosforcongress.com/statement-gil-cisneros-ca-39-releases-letter-epa-chief-scott-pruitt/
I do not see anything from the other leading campaigns, at least, not from Thorburn, Young Kim, Shawn Nelson, and Bob Huff.
Yay, Donovan and the OJ caused (possibly) 14 extra comments, probably for the listing. And Cisneros shows himself to be the most responsive to real-time local concerns.
“the OJ caused (possibly) 14 extra comments, probably for the listing.”
Quite possibly. I find few references to this in normal media, and none that even raise the public commentary, so if a significant share of comments started trickling in after OJB posted this, then that suggests a great deal about the engagement and courage of the OJB readership.
I literally saw the post (which I’d missed when it was posted), followed the link, and got there 15 minutes too late to comment.
I’m not going to argue with divine intercession.
Nothing is going to happen. The ASCON Dump site sitting in HB at Magnolia & Hamilton has been here for 50 years and will be here for another 50 years.
It’s called job security as more money has been spent searching for a cure than actually doing something. Yes several dump loads have been removed, but they have not found the bulldozer in one of the lagoons. Known as Chernobyl West. The WGM World’s Greatest Mayor wanted to put a minor league baseball park, but found out there is a high incidence of debilitating disease found over the years caused by this site.
In fact the latest scheme is to plant grass over it. What will happen is that the toxic gas will seep to the surface and all you need to do is light a match and watch a column of gas burn. Methane gas can be used to roast your hot dogs. I will be dead and pushing up daises as this project has been going on since the 1960’s. Vern is an excellent source of info
Mitt: You could be right. Looking at the available docs, it appears to me:
(1) The ASCON Dump site was handled ‘internally’ between California businesses (“the ‘responsible parties’) and the Cal EPA. They reached what appears to be a negotiated consent decree in Jan 2003.
(2) The latest fact sheet optimistically notes ‘preliminary phases’ of remedial work are underway…as of July 2017.
(3) Ascon was never a superfund site.
I cannot say that the SuperFund rules will work better than the consent decree in 2003, which charged the responsible parties with cleaning up the Ascon site. Maybe the businesses in the OC North Basin area are just that much richer and more professional all those ‘poor little’ companies responsible for Ascon (e.g., Chevron, Exxon, Conoco, et. al.)…
Anyone doing a study on the number of people getting cancer in these areas? I grew up in Placentia and the number of people I know with cancer is pretty shocking. The only thing common among everyone is living in Placentia, going to Golden Elem/El Dorado High, and cancer.
*So, at least the folks in Dana Point will be safe….creating a small Desal plant there, all approved and paid for mind you. Reducing the chlorine and bromine input to the local
constabulary.
Much much different project.
Ryan is right. North Basin provides 75% of the water to 2.5 million people in the OC, which has a population of 3.17 million. Whatever Dana Point does with desal will probably have nothing to do with the water supply elsewhere in the county.