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70 Billion Gallons of Water Called Undrinkable
Tuesday, January 28th 2003
By Don Thompson
ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 28, 2003
SACRAMENTO - More than 70 billion gallons of California ground water is undrinkable because of contamination by just two highly publicized pollutants, a public interest group says in a report being released today.
That's enough for 400,000 families for a year, and if usable would replace more than a third of the water California is losing because of its inability to cut back on its draw from the Colorado River, says Environment California.
Backed by the report, state Sen. Nell Soto, D-Pomona, plans to introduce legislation to increase water protections and require polluters to replace lost water supplies.
Environment California is a new spin-off from CalPIRG, the state's chapter of the national Public Interest Research Group. The report is the first for the group that officially splits from CalPIRG this week.
The report catalogs estimates of contaminated water from two pollutants for which cleanup efforts are already under way: MTBE, a gasoline additive that trims air pollution, and perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel.
Though polluters already are often paying for cleanup, the group says that does not include many extra public costs. The city of Colton, for instance, is paying $4,000 a day to bring in drinking water and has obtained a $3 million emergency state loan to begin cleanup.
Santa Monica and San Diego are dealing with MTBE ground-water contamination, including a plume underneath San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium, where the Super Bowl was played Sunday. Ground water there isn't used for drinking now, but is in the city's long-term plans to help replace lost Colorado River water.
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