Rialto officials optimistic about solving water problem

RIALTO - City officials who head efforts to clean up a massive water contamination problem in the city emote something new these days: optimism.

More than a decade after perchlorate and other industrial chemicals were discovered in the local drinking water supply, members of the City Council say a resolution may be in the not-too-distant offing.

"You don't know which tool is going to be most effective, and frankly I think it's a combination of them," said Councilwoman Winnie Hanson, a member of the council's perchlorate subcommittee.

After spending $26 million on perchlorate-related expenses, last month the city was able to dismiss a federal lawsuit that would have begun in December and been expensive to carry out.

Now the parties are in settlement talks, though a confidentiality agreement makes it difficult to find out how those talks are going.

Perchlorate is a chemical used to produce explosives, such as rocket fuel. It is flowing for miles through the underground water supply from an industrial site on the city's north end.

Though the city's Water Department and the other major water purveyor in the city, the West Valley Water District, treat contaminated water before serving it, the contamination could cost $200 million or more to clean up. Perchlorate interferes with the functioning of the thyroid gland and could be a particularly potent threat to pregnant women, unborn babies and children, scientists say.