(9/14/11) LOS ANGELES The U.S
(9/14/11) LOS ANGELES – The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Northrop Grumman
Systems Corporation to spend an estimated $20 million to build a
groundwater cleanup system to address groundwater contamination
stemming primarily from the former Benchmark Technology facility in
the City of Industry, Calif., located within the San Gabriel Valley
Superfund Sites.
Formerly located at 200 South Turnbull Canyon
Road, the Benchmark Technology facility is one of the largest
sources of volatile organic compound groundwater contamination in
the Puente Valley area of the Superfund site. Northrop Grumman will
install wells and a treatment plant to contain and treat
groundwater contaminated by VOCs and 1,4-dioxane. The treated water
will then be discharged back to surface water or injected back into
the underground aquifer, providing additional water resources to
San Gabriel Valley residents.
“Today’s order will protect the
essential drinking water supplies in the San Gabriel Valley. The
treatment system is designed to intercept the most highly
contaminated groundwater plume and prevent it from migrating
further.” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional
Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “Once again, EPA is
taking action requiring the company responsible for the pollution
to pay for its cleanup in Puente Valley.”
Northrop Grumman has already spent over $10
million implementing cleanup activities at the former Benchmark
Technology facility through a facility-specific Cleanup and
Abatement Order issued by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality
Control Board in 1989. The Water Board has agreed to transfer lead
oversight to EPA in order to better coordinate the three
groundwater cleanup projects currently ongoing in the Puente
Valley. The other two projects are the shallow zone remedial action
north of Puente Creek and the intermediate zone remedial action.
Northrop Grumman is also performing the intermediate zone remedial
action under a 2009 consent decree with EPA.
The contaminated groundwater associated with all
of the San Gabriel Valley sites lies under significant portions of
Alhambra, Irwindale, La Puente, Rosemead, Azusa, Baldwin Park, City
of Industry, El Monte, South El Monte, West Covina, and other areas
of the San Gabriel Valley. There are 45 water suppliers in the
Valley that use the San Gabriel Basin groundwater aquifer to
provide 90 percent of the drinking water for over one million
people.
The groundwater was contaminated by more than 60
companies that used volatile organic compounds for degreasing,
metal cleaning and other purposes. The EPA listed several sections
of the San Gabriel Valley as Superfund sites in 1984, including
multiple areas of groundwater contaminated by volatile organic
compounds.
For more information on the EPA’s
Superfund program, visit: https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-region-9-pacific-southwest
- ### -