Chino is beset with a lingering contamination issue on its eastern end north of the former agricultural preserve, it was publicly revealed last week in a roundabout fashion.
The city is going to construct, at a cost of $2,625,835.22, a transmission water pipeline to a treatment facility.
The project is necessitated by the presence of trichloropropane in the water table below the area lying generally in the vicinity of the intersection of Cypress Avenue and Walnut Avenue.
It is suspected that the trichloropropane contamination resulted from the chemical’s use in agricultural operations on nearby properties.
Also known as allyl trichloride, glycerol trichlorohydrin, and trichlorohydrin, 1,2,3-Trichloropropane is a chlorinated derivative of propylene. A colorless liquid, it is used as a solvent and in other specialty applications, including as a paint or varnish remover, a cleaning agent and for degreasing. With a sweet but strong odor, it evaporates very quickly, and small amounts of the substance will dissolve in water. Known as TCP, 1,2,3-Trichloropropane is recognized in California as a cancer-causing agent. Furthermore, short term exposure to TCP can cause throat and eye irritation and can affect muscle coordination and concentration. Long-term exposure can affect body weight and kidney function. Prior to 1980, farming operations in the United States commonly made use of chloropropane-containing soil fumigants for use as pesticides and wormicides. 1,2,3-TCP was a minor component in a popular soil fumigant marketed under the name D-D that was used in the cultivation of various crops, including citrus fruits, pineapples, soy beans, cotton, tomatoes, and potatoes. D-D was first available commercially in 1943, but is no longer available in the United States. Fumigants applied today use far less 1,2,3-TCP, only 0.17 percent by weight, according to one source available to the Sentinel.
1,2,3-Trichloropropane has been present in the local water supply for decades. It became an issue when the State of California lowered its acceptable contamination level for 1,2,3-TCP to five parts per trillion. Samplings from the City of Chino’s various wells showed that Well 11, which supplied groundwater that was pumped into the city’s water distribution system, had a contaminant level exceeding the maximum. The city shuttered Well 11.
Last week, the city council voted to approve a contract with MCC Equipment Rental Inc. of Yucaipa to construct a 16-inch raw water transmission pipeline that will run from the intersection of Cyress Avenue and Chino Avenue north to Walnut Avenue, jog right or east to San Antonio Avenue and then continue north on San Antonio Avenue to meet up with an existing 18-inch raw water pipe near the alley at Aster Court, roughly two blocks north of Walnut Avenue. The existing 18-inch pipeline will whisk the water to the Eastside Water Treatment Facility in Ontario.
In addition to constructing the pipeline from Well 11 to the existing pipeline near the Aster Court alley, MCC Equipment Rental Inc is to complete backfill, repaving, and street repair for streets affected by the construction for the said price of $2,625,835.22. MCC Equipment Rental Inc was the low bidder on the project among 15 companies that made applications to do the work. The closest bid to MCC’s was one for $2,727,777 by E.J. Meyer Company. The highest bid was $4,956,361 by James W Fowler Co.
Chino is beset with contamination issues.
The Regional Water Quality Board has long been working with the City of Chino and the County of San Bernardino over the contamination of ground water beneath Chino Airport. The Regional Water Quality Board has issued multiple clean-up and abatement orders pertaining to both the removal of drums of napalm buried on the airport grounds as well as solvents and aviation fuel that has migrated into the water table.
Other contamination issues exist in the area, including excessively brackish groundwater in the south end of the Chino Basin brought about by nitrates and dissolved solids from agricultural and diary operations there. As a consequence, the cities of Chino, Chino Hills, Norco [in Riverside County] and Ontario, along with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency, the Jurupa Community Services District, the Santa Ana River Water Company and the Western Municipal Water District formed the Chino Basin Desalter Authority as a Joint Powers Authority to operate the Chino I and II Desalter facilities to purify groundwater extracted from the lower Chino Basin.
-Mark Gutglueck