Underground river suspected in flow of BMI contaminants

Friday, Jan. 15, 1999 | 10:24 a.m.

Contaminants suspected to be coming from the Basic Management Industrial plants may be flowing in an underground stream into Las Vegas' drinking-water supply, water officials said Thursday.

The discovery is significant because scientists believe if the river can be located, then it can be diverted from the plant site and the pollutants can be blocked from flowing into Lake Mead, Southern Nevada's primary source for drinking water.

Allen Biaggi, director of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, said Thursday that preliminary measurements of the volume of water contaminated with perchlorate -- a rocket-fuel enhancer -- along with salts, radiation, pesticides and insecticides show that it could be riding a river coming from Black Mountain.

Black Mountain, about 20 miles southeast of Las Vegas, formed during volcanic activity millions of years ago. Fractures in volcanic rock can allow water to flow deep in the rock.

Brenda Pohlmann, the lead scientist studying perchlorate for the state, told the Lake Mead Water Quality Forum meeting Thursday in Las Vegas that studies of the contaminated ground water have intensified.

Preliminary studies of contaminated water draining into the Las Vegas Wash, leading to Lake Mead, show that one well in the Pittman area discharged at 300 gallons a minute, Pohlmann said.

"That's a ton of water," biologist Larry Paulson, a forum member, said -- more than could come from the industrial wastewater ponds alone. The industries lined the evaporation ponds in the early 1980s.

The state, in cooperation with industries near Henderson, has expanded its research into contamination in the wash and lake after a host of toxic chemicals, radioactivity and compounds that may disrupt fish breeding were detected in the water in the past three years.

The BMI companies are doing extensive analysis of ground-water chemicals.

"That will give us a much better picture of what's in the water at what levels," Pohlmann said.

Paulson said that if the water draining into the wash flows from above the contaminated industrial site, it could be diverted at its source. "It would make sense to divert that before it goes into the BMI complex," Paulson said.

That is why the BMI scientists are involved in the investigation with the site, said Dan Stewart, president of BMI, which will be known as Black Mountain Inc. in the future.

Much of the extended studies began when perchlorate was discovered in Lake Mead's waters.

Perchlorate raises concerns because it can interrupt thyroid function, especially in infants and children. In the 1950s doctors in Europe gave patients with overactive thyroids perchlorate to slow the gland's hormone production. In high doses, the substance caused blood disease and even death.