Lockheed put chromium-tainted water in aquifer, official says

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Lockheed put chromium-tainted water in aquifer, official says

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Lockheed Martin Corp. discharged hundreds of millions of gallons of water contaminated with chromium 6 directly into San Fernando Valley's underground water supply, a water official alleged.

State and Los Angeles County records show that from the 1940s to the 1960s, the aerospace company drew more than 100 million gallons of water a year from a valley aquifer, ran it through its air conditioning system and returned it to the ground, Mel Blevins said.

Blevins is the court-appointed master who oversees groundwater pumping rights for the upper Los Angeles River basin.

"That water, with high concentrations of chromium 6, or hexavalent chromium, was pumped and delivered to water customers by nearby cities, including Burbank, Glendale and Los Angeles," Blevins told the Los Angeles Times for Monday's newspaper.

However, Blevins said he did not know what levels of chromium 6 may have been in water delivered to local homes.

Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Gail E. Rymer said the firm used chromium 6 as a rust inhibitor in cooling towers for its air conditioning system until 1966.

The water was not treated before being discharged into the ground.

"These were commonly used methods of discharge" and complied with the regulations of the time, Rymer said.

Chromium 6 is known to be a carcinogen when inhaled, but scientists remain divided over its health effects in ground water.

However, Los Angeles and Burbank have stopped pumping water from three Valley-area wells.

Blevins and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Board are investigating the sources of chromium 6 contamination in the Valley aquifer

http://www.sacbee.com/news/calreport/calrep_story.cgi?story=N2001-01-21-2230-0.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 22, 2001


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