Of the six Superfund zones in the contaminated San Gabriel Basin, Puente Valley stands out like a sore thumb.

It’s the one that has no treatment.

“In the Puente Valley Operable Unit, very little has been done so far. That is (the responsibility of) Northrop Grumman,” one of two lead companies deemed responsible for leaking toxic chemicals into the groundwater, said Kenneth Manning, executive director of the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority.

At the Baldwin Park-Azusa site, five treatment plants have been built. Four plants operate at the El Monte site. Four are operating in the South El Monte area and two were built at Whittier Narrows, which has been so successful one plant closed because contamination was eliminated, according to the WQA. The Alhambra site is still awaiting an EPA order, known as a Record of Decision.

In total, 1.4 million acre-feet of water have been treated at 32 water treatment facilities (one acre-foot equals about 325,000 gallons), enough water to fill the Rose Bowl 5,335 times. Water is supplied to retail water districts and private water companies and used by San Gabriel Valley and some Central Basin (southeast Los Angeles County) residents, according to WQA records.

However, not one drop of water and not a single gram of contaminant has been treated or removed from the Puente Valley area, according to the WQA.

Foot-dragging, poor decision-making and a sweet deal between Northrop Grumman and the City of Industry have stalled cleanup of pollution first discovered in 1979, leaving murky, toxic plumes to spread beneath the industrial belt of the San Gabriel Valley roughly between the 605 Freeway and Azusa Avenue along the 60 Freeway corridor, officials said.

“We have been working with them (Northrop Grumman) literally for 15 years to come up with a remedy in the Puente Valley,” Manning said. “Every time we get to where we think we have a remedy, some other aspect comes up and we have to start over again.”

Northrop finally agrees to build plant

Push came to shove when Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-El Monte, and state Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, pulled in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the WQA and Northrop on May 20 to update the public on the Puente Valley aspect and the overall basin contamination, the largest Superfund site in the United States. More than 200 people attended.

Earlier in July, the WQA announced Northrop Grumman had agreed to build a new treatment plant that will include reverse osmosis, the most advanced form of water treatment. Northrop Grumman has purchased land at 111 Hudson Ave., adjacent to the Industry Sheriff’s Station and next door to the Worldwide Tattoo Supply Co. for the plant, called the PVOU Remedy Project. Construction will begin in 2017, be completed in 2018 and begin operating in 2019, according to documents from Northrop Grumman.

It will be the first reverse osmosis treatment plant operating in the basin Superfund site, Manning said.

“We are glad that after so many years of delays in cleaning up the Puente Valley location of the San Gabriel Valley Superfund site there is finally a detailed plan to start the cleanup,” wrote Napolitano in an email Thursday.

According to Dan Colby, project resource manager with the WQA, Northrop has sunk a half dozen extraction wells near Sunset Avenue and Nelson Avenue in Industry and will build a pipeline to pump contaminated water from there to the Hudson Avenue plant. Once the contaminants are treated to near undetectable levels, the water will be taken by the La Puente Valley County Water District and be distributed to its customers, as well as Rowland Water District and Walnut Valley Water District customers.

The new plant will remove trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE); perchlorate; 1,4-dioxane; and hexavalent chromium, all carcinogens, Colby said. These contaminants were used as degreasers or solvents in the manufacturing of goods, including circuit boards, he said. Perchlorate is a component of rocket fuel. Over half the basin is contaminated, resulting in drinking water wells being shut down, Manning said.

“Northrop Grumman is fully committed to the complete implementation of the remedy as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement.

But Manning and the WQA are not quite ready to celebrate. Often, companies can drag out the project design phase several years because they don’t want to pay the bill — one that is usually much larger for operating the plant for 20-30 years. “As long as they don’t start cleaning up they don’t have to spend the big money,” Manning said.

In documents laying out the project, Northrop qualifies the time frame by saying it must receive EPA approvals throughout the planning, design, construction and startup phases and that progress is contingent upon these approvals.

“We want to keep the pressure on,” Manning said. “We’d even like to see it operating sooner than that.”

Side deals may muddy the waters

Two issues are a concern to Manning and his team.

First, a side agreement regarding one well between Industry and Northrop Grumman executed in 2008 and signed by then-Mayor Dave Perez goes easy on the company, Manning said. It requires a lower level of cleanup than every other contract negotiated by the WQA in other cleanup zones.

Manning indicated Industry may have been duped or was not paying attention.

“Their (original) contract is a terrible contract, the one they got into with Northrop Grumman,” Manning said. The lesser-treated water is useless. It would not be acceptable to the state’s Division of Drinking Water and therefore, may be released to the ocean.

“It is a waste of an asset if you pump it up, clean it and throw it down the wash,” Colby said. “Water is too valuable nowadays. We are in a drought and the basin is at historic lows.”

Manning called the original contract “flawed” and went so far as to say that Industry is interfering in progress in the cleanup of the overall Puente Valley zone. “We are trying to convince Industry to actually back off on some of the things they are doing there,” Manning said.

It’s unclear if the side agreement with Industry affects the commitment from Northrop Grumman to build a comprehensive plant for its share of the Puente Valley pollution. UTC Carrier, the makers of air conditioning units, is working on designing a second plant to treat its part of the pollution plume, Colby said.

At its June 27 meeting, the City Council agreed to readopting the licensing agreement for the city’s well with Northrop Grumman, said City Attorney James Casso.

Casso defended the lower standard, saying that is what the EPA requires, no more, no less. “This was something put together pursuant to the orders of the EPA and the state Regional Water Quality Control Board,” he said. The renegotiated agreement “doesn’t touch the substance of the levels of cleanup,” Casso said, but does add more protection from liability for Industry.

Manning indicated that the previous city engineer, J.D. Ballas, who has since been let go, took a more laid-back approach. Casso agreed, saying the city is now going back and “fixing” old agreements. In fact, WQA board member Bob Kuhn met with Frank Hill, a former state senator and who has worked with Industry in the past, over groundwater contamination and other water-related matters last fall, records show. Kuhn said many of the new council members were not up to speed on the issues.

The WQA is concerned about evaporating political will to rid the crucial source of drinking water of toxic chemicals, so that additional gallons of water can be cleaned and served to customers. In the next 20 years, just operating and maintaining treatment plants in the six zones will cost $650 million.

The projects, which take decades to build and operate, loom more important as a way to protect or even expand a hidden water source, as the region enters the fifth year of drought.

“What we want to do is renew the issue in the public’s eye,” Manning said. “To tell the EPA and the responsible parties that it is not done, that you still have work to do. So let’s get it done.”