The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed a partnership with Honeywell International Inc. to finance the development of groundwater treatment facilities at the San Fernando Valley (Area 1) Superfund site located in Los Angeles, California.
These facilities, set to be constructed in the North Hollywood Operable Unit of the Superfund site, aim to address industrial groundwater pollution and enable the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to incorporate the treated water into its drinking water supply.
This agreement with Honeywell was achieved after more than ten years of negotiations, which involved significant consultation and collaboration with LADWP.
“Today’s announcement signifies significant advancement in the groundwater cleanup efforts in the San Fernando Valley,” stated Martha Guzman, EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator. “This is a crucial move towards restoring the aquifer for use as a drinking water source for Los Angeles residents.”
The establishment of these treatment facilities is the result of a collaborative effort involving LADWP, EPA, and Honeywell. The stakeholders worked together to address complex issues concerning groundwater contamination management, ensuring that essential cleanup activities can proceed while simultaneously enhancing Los Angeles’s capacity to utilize its groundwater for providing safe and essential drinking water to its citizens.
This collaborative strategy, which included a distinct settlement between LADWP and Honeywell in 2019, has set the groundwork for a more unified and effective long-term strategy to combat the pollution that has afflicted the San Fernando Basin for many years. More generally, this model will guide the EPA’s ongoing initiatives to safeguard vital drinking water resources in Southern California.
This agreement underscores the coordinated actions between LADWP and EPA to hold accountable those responsible for their historical manufacturing of hazardous substances, leading to groundwater contamination in the San Fernando Basin.
Honeywell’s predecessors were involved in manufacturing and testing aircraft components and other industrial products since the 1940s at a facility in North Hollywood known as the Former Bendix Site.
The EPA and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board concluded that activities at several industrial sites, including the Former Bendix Site, contributed to the contamination of the groundwater resources in the area identified by the EPA as the North Hollywood Operable Unit.
Under the terms of the agreement between EPA and Honeywell, contaminated groundwater will be extracted for treatment and subsequently supplied to LADWP for its drinking water system. This added resource will assist in fulfilling the daily water requirements of approximately 144,000 residents in the nation’s second-largest city.
Source :EPA
