Local News in Brief : Well Free of Pollutants
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The first well in the San Gabriel Valley to be closed because of contamination with an industrial solvent nearly 10 years ago is now free of most of the contamination, water officials say.
As recently as three years ago the Irwindale well was tainted with perchloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and other substances suspected of being weak carcinogens.
But water officials say it isn’t necessarily good news that the well, one of 90 in the San Gabriel Valley that have been contaminated, is now producing water that is almost fit to drink--it simply means the contamination has probably moved elsewhere in the area’s ground water supply.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that it would cost $800 million and take more than 50 years to clean up the ground water.
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