Lawyer Sanders says EPA wants to add BF Goodrich's perchlorate site in Rialto, California to NPL.

U.S. EPA may take over cleanup of a former B.F. Goodrich toxic waste site in San Bernardino County, adding it to the national priorities or Superfund list. The site has been used by a succession of businesses since it was developed in the 1940s, including testing and manufacturing of munitions, rocket motors, and pyrotechnics.

Regulators believe contamination is largely from historic industrial operations at the site that predate current regulatory programs. U.S. EPA is pursuing five parties at the site: Charlotte, N.C.-based Goodrich Corp., local fireworks company Pyro Spectaculars, the defunct Black & Decker division of Emhart Industries and two property owners, Ken Thompson Inc. and Chung Ming Wong.

Trichloroethene (TCE) and perchlorate have contaminated soil, soil gas, and ground water at the site. Contamination is present above the Safe Drinking Water Act’s maximum contaminant level (MCL) at depths of more than 800 feet below ground and extends more than three miles down-gradient of the site.

More than 20 municipal drinking water wells located in the Rialto-Colton ground water basin and adjacent basins are known to be contaminated with TCE, tetrachloroethene , and/or perchlorate. The wells are part of blended systems that serve hundreds of thousands of people.

As a result of this contamination, the West Valley Water District, the Fontana Water Company, and the Cities of Rialto and Colton have limited or ceased the use of several municipal water supply wells and several others are threatened. Contamination from perchlorate led the Rialto City Council to declare a water emergency last year.

EPA's website is at: http://pubweb.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/p080903.htm.