All of Glendale's wells have been found to contain varying levels of chromium 6, said Peter Kavounas, the city's water services administrator.
A $250,000 grant approved by the City Council Tuesday will help design the first facility, which is scheduled to open as soon as this fall, he said.
A consortium of cities effected by the pollution — including Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale and San Fernando — are also hoping a $2-million grant proposal for additional funding will be approved by the state's Department of Health Services.
Securing that grant will bring the consortium about halfway toward covering the almost $9-million cost of building and operating both facilities, according to city staff reports.
The cities have been working with the Regional Water Quality Control Board since 2002, when budget cuts there threatened to bog down mitigation and abatement efforts for pollution found mostly along the San Fernando Road industrial corridor.
Since then, the board has issued clean-up orders to seven companies in Glendale along that corridor that were found to have chromium 6-contaminated soil.
Those orders have fueled the city's interest in ensuring the mitigation efforts stay on track, Mayor Ara Najarian said.
"It's an unfortunate situation we're in," he said. "These companies sort of left this on our doorstep and we have to do what we can to deal with it."
So far, the highest concentration measured among the city's eight wells has been at 55 parts per billion, slightly above the state-mandated maximum level of 50 parts per billion, Kavounas said.
