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EPA ORDERS AEROJET TO CLEAN UP SITE TO PREVENT FURTHER DRINKING WATER LOSSES

Release Date: 8/12/2002
Contact Information: Leo Kay, Press Office, 415/947-4306

     Superfund cleanup to continue in Sacramento County with additional safeguards

     SAN FRANCISCO   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an order to Aerojet- General Corporation Friday requiring the company to prevent further drinking water wells from being contaminated on the Sacramento County, Calif. site's western side.

     The order seeks to ultimately restore the contaminated aquifer and minimize the further loss of water supply wells, and  requires Aerojet to provide an alternative water supply if more water supply wells are lost.  The estimated 30-year cost for the overall remedy is $124 million.

     The contamination on the west side of the Aerojet facility extends approximately two miles into Rancho Cordova reaching Sunrise Boulevard.  The most prevalent contaminants in the groundwater are perchlorate, trichloroethylene (TCE) and n-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA).

     "This order will ensure that local residents have safe drinking water for years to come while Aerojet works to restore groundwater quality," said Jane Diamond, director of the EPA's Superfund Division in San Francisco.

     The EPA and Aerojet-General Corporation have been unable to agree on a consent decree that would have required Aerojet to carry out the July 2001 cleanup plan.  Aerojet is now modifying its western groundwater extraction and treatment facility to prevent further contamination from flowing off-property into Rancho Cordova.  The remaining perimeter groundwater control on the north, east and south sides of the site will be addressed separately next year.  

     The Aerojet General Corporation site covers 8,500 acres near Rancho Cordova, 15 miles east of Sacramento, and is about 1/2 mile from the American River.  Since 1953, Aerojet and its subsidiaries have manufactured liquid and solid propellant rocket engines for military and commercial applications and have formulated a number of chemicals, including rocket propellant agents, agricultural, pharmaceutical, and other industrial chemicals.  In addition, the Cordova Chemical Company operated chemical manufacturing facilities on the Aerojet complex from 1974 to 1979.  

     Both companies disposed of unknown quantities of hazardous waste chemicals, including TCE and other chemicals associated with rocket propellants, as well as various chemical processing wastes. Some wastes were disposed of in surface impoundments, landfills, deep injection wells, leachate fields, and some were disposed of by open burning.