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Tapping into natural water sources

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La Canada-Flintridge is once again is tapping into its natural water resources, thanks to a NASA-funded treatment plant that is cleaning the toxic residue left over from Jet Propulsion Laboratory rocket-building activities in the 1940s and ‘50s.

Officials from NASA, Pasadena and the Environmental Protection Agency celebrated the opening of the Monk Hill water treatment facility Thursday by toasting each other with local water purified by the new $8.5 million plant.

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“It’s important for the local wells, the local aquifer, to be clean and usable,” Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) told the Valley Sun. “It was unfortunate that these wells got contaminated in the first place, but it’s a terrific accomplishment to see a clean-up effort go online.”

NASA agreed to pay for the main treatment plant after studies determined that perchlorates from rocket fuels and volatile organic compounds from industrial solvents, which had been dumped in seepage pits, drains and ditches near the JPL campus, had compromised local groundwater.

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--Daniel Siegel, Times Community News

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