Financing chromium 6 removal

CITY HALL — A multimillion-dollar, cross-jurisdictional chromium 6 removal project for Glendale wells is scheduled for a major financial boost tonight, when the City Council is expected to make official a $431,122 private industry contribution toward the effort.

Glendale Respondents Group LLC — made up of more than a dozen industrial corporations such as Lockheed Martin and Honeywell that were “potentially” responsible for groundwater contamination over the past several decades — agreed to contribute the money after negotiations this summer with Glendale Water & Power, the lead agency in the ongoing chromium 6 removal research project.

The group already pays roughly $2.7 million annually to operate the Glendale Water Treatment Plant as part of a 1994 agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help mitigate groundwater contamination that occurred decades ago.

The latest deposit would bring Glendale to within about $200,000 of covering the cost of the $4-million demonstration project, which will pit one chromium 6 removal technology against the other at two water treatment facilities along the San Fernando Road corridor.

Glendale Respondents Group made the contribution under pressure from the EPA to reduce the amount of chromium 6 to a level that would meet environmental standards for emergency discharges into the Los Angeles River.

With Glendale well on its way to building the chromium 6 removal demonstration facilities, EPA officials said it made sense for the industrial consortium to contribute to the project as a way to fulfill the obligation.

“In my view, it was a win-win-win for everybody,” said David Stensby, remedial project manager for the San Fernando Valley Superfund site, Glendale area.

Federal and local water officials have lauded Glendale Respondents Group for its willingness to meet the terms of its EPA agreement as a contributing factor to the Superfund site’s remediation plans.

“They’re not writing blank checks, but they’re writing the necessary checks,” said city Water Services Administrator Peter Kavounas.

Combined with millions of dollars in federal, state and private foundation grants, the latest contribution is a “clear sign that we’re moving forward,” he added.