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Lake Mead cleanup of perchlorate proves successful

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 8, 2008 at 12:26 pm

From Red Orbit:

While environmental officials in other states have been bickering over who is responsible for cleaning up contamination from the rocket fuel ingredient, perchlorate, and to what level, water quality officials in Nevada have blazed a trail to follow.

J.C. Davis, a spokesman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, credits the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection with spearheading the cleanup effort that has dramatically reduced levels of it in Lake Mead since it was first discovered there a decade ago.

He said the turning point came when hydrologists were able pinpoint locations where the contamination was entering Las Vegas Wash, which empties into Lake Mead, Southern Nevada’s primary drinking water source. “The key is you take it out before it gets into the lake,” Davis said Tuesday.

The tainted groundwater is intercepted, perchlorate is extracted and clean water is then released to continue its course to the lake.

“The people who were actually manufacturing perchlorate stepped up without any compulsory requirements and did the cleanup,” he said, recalling how water officials and former rocket fuel manufacturers around Henderson huddled with Nevada environmental officials in the late 1990s to plot a course of action. “Everybody said, ‘What’s the object?’ The goal is to protect drinking water customers instead of about arguing whether or not it was regulated or to what level of cleanup,” Davis said.

Read the rest of this article from Red Orbit by clicking here.

May 8, 2008 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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