Kerr, PEPCON may be Superfund sites

Monday, Sept. 28, 1998 | 10:51 a.m.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is considering action under the Superfund law for two Southern Nevada industrial sites that are contaminating the Colorado River with the rocket fuel booster perchlorate.

Scientists are concerned that perchlorate contaminating the Colorado River could affect 23 million people drawing water to drink and grow crops.

The EPA is evaluating Kerr McGee Chemical Corp. and the former Pacific Engineering & Production Company for possible remedial action to clean up contamination from production of ammonium perchlorate at the companies' sites in Henderson, said Randy Wittorp of the EPA Region 9 office in San Francisco.

Perchlorate levels were found in Lake Mead ranging from 16 parts per billion to 6 parts per billion. Southern California's Metropolitan Water District discovered perchlorate a year ago in its water supply from the Colorado River at 8 parts per billion.

California state health officials set a guideline of 18 parts per billion for drinking water. There is no national standard for perchlorate in drinking water and Nevada has not set any health guidelines.

In order to qualify for the Superfund federal cleanup program, the sites have to make the National Priorities List, Wittorp said. "At this time, they are not on the list," he said.

Perchlorate has been found in drinking and well water sources in Nevada, California and Utah. Scientists are studying long-term exposure to the chemical which dissolves in water and can slow growth by interfering with the thyroid gland. Perchlorate has been used to treat overactive thyroids, a disease called hyperthyroidism.

In extreme high doses in humans, perchlorate has caused blood diseases and even death.

The U.S. Department of Defense, the EPA and state environmental agencies are working together to determine perchlorate's effects from two studies in rats.

The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection is overseeing plans to contain ground water contaminated with perchlorate that has left Kerr McGee and PEPCON properties.

Brenda Pohlmann, in charge of the perchlorate cleanup project for NDEP, said the state plans to continue working on the cleanup that includes a containment pond and research on plans to eliminate the chemical from the water at the Kerr McGee site. Both Kerr McGee and PEPCON conducted ground water tests and mapped the paths where perchlorate could flow.

The state met with EPA officials recently, she said. "The state remains in charge," she said.

PEPCON blew up in 1988. The company is now known as American Pacific Corp. and moved its operations west of Cedar City, Utah, in 1989.

The EPA investigated the PEPCON explosion that destroyed the plant and chose to leave the responsibility for cleaning up the site to the state, Pohlmann said.