Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency (SCV Water) has shut down a well after the detection of perchlorate, a potential carcinogen, officials said Thursday.

The Q2 Well was voluntarily shut down “out an abundance of caution” on May 14 after perchlorate levels reached the maximum levels allowed in the water supply, according to Kathie Martin, public information officer for SCV Water.

Perchlorate can be manufactured and used as an industrial chemical, and is found in rocket propellant, explosives, fireworks and road flares. It has also been found in some public drinking water systems and in food, according to the EPA.

The Well

Q2 is located near the Lowe’s shopping center on the west side of Bouquet Canyon Road, just north of the Santa Clara River.

On May 8, the SCV Water lab perchlorate levels in the supply reached 0.006 mg/L —  the maximum contaminant level where treatment becomes necessary or the water needs to be removed from service, according to officials.

SCV Water contacted the State Water Resource Control Board – Division of Drinking Water (DDW), its primary regulators, to inform them of the results, officials said.

The agency is expected to leave the well offline and continue sampling to track the contaminant levels while investigating potential treatment as warranted.

Perchlorate was first detected at Well Q2 in April 2005, according to SCV Water.

Treatment was installed on-site, and weekly samples were collected when the treatment system was put online in October 2005. Perchlorate was no longer detected and treatment was removed from the well in October 2007.

Since then, Well Q2 has been continuously monitored and has not had any further perchlorate detections until May 8, SCV Water officials said.

The Toxic Clean-Up

Whittaker Bermite, a 996-acre plot next to the Metrolink station on Soledad Canyon Road in the hills behind the Saugus Swap Meet, was used in part for a munitions factory in the first half of the last century, leaving decades worth of a contaminant known as perchlorate in the soil and groundwater.

The facility started making dynamite in the 1930s, moving onto fireworks and oil field explosives, according to City of Santa Clarita officials.

Since first detected in groundwater wells in the Santa Clarita Valley in 1997, the predecessors to the new SCV Water have worked with state environmental and health regulators to address the perchlorate problem.

This includes seeking reimbursement for groundwater cleanup and replacement water supply costs from responsible parties, the Whittaker Corporation and its insurers, according to SCV Water.

The clean-up of the soil is expected to be completed prior to 2020, but the groundwater clean-up could take more than 20 years, according to City officials.

The Treatment

SCV Water has a state-of-the-art Saugus Perchlorate Treatment Facility (SPTF), which employs a single-pass ion exchange process.

It is the result of extensive technical investigations, identifying best-practice control strategies, as well as the most effective and least costly treatment processes, according to officials.

The SPTF is located near the Lowe’s off Bouquet Canyon Road. It began delivering treated groundwater in January 2011. As of December 31, 2017, the facility has removed, treated and returned over 7 billion gallons of groundwater for beneficial use.

SCV Water has vigorously pursued treatment, as well as payment from Whittaker-Bermite, according to officials.

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