EPA cuts off use of faulty Scottsdale well

The well that led to two water contamination scares in October and January will not serve Arizona American Water Co. customers for at least a year while a long-term remedy is developed, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday.

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Treated water from that well at the Miller Road Treatment Facility in Scottsdale will continue to be dumped into the Arizona Canal.

Click to view a map of Arizona American Water Company's service area

Meanwhile, the three companies that operate the facility - Motorola, Siemens Corp. and GlaxoSmith Kline - will develop long-term solutions to be presented to the EPA in the fall.

"We have no plans to bring that well on in the interim," said Sheryl Bilbrey, a section chief with the EPA.

On Wednesday, the EPA held its first community meeting since the January incident, when system failures allowed the suspected carcinogen trichloroethylene, or TCE, into the drinking water supply at levels four times the allowable level.

In the October incident, water discharged from the Miller Road facility had levels of TCE above the allowable limit, but it was blended with clean water before being delivered to the public.

Bilbrey said another meeting is expected after long-term solution plans are presented to the agency later this year.

Motorola, Siemens Corp. and GlaxoSmith Kline were fined $500,000 on Monday by the EPA for the system failures.

The companies are responsible for polluting groundwater under a vast swath of Scottsdale with TCE, beginning in the mid-1950s. The chemical was generally used as an industrial solvent.

Arizona American, the private company that delivered the water to about 12,000 people in parts of Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, was fined $69,000 in April by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Arizona American had been pumping and treating the contaminated water on behalf of Motorola.

Since January, Motorola, Siemens Corp. and GlaxoSmith Kline have implemented interim actions, including a physical barrier separating the contaminated well from two Arizona American wells at the facility.

They have also agreed to have an operator present at all times, have a new control and alarm system installed, and collect daily samples with a 24-hour laboratory turnaround. In addition, equipment and controls are inspected a minimum of three times a day.

The pumping of the contaminated well resumed last month at the Miller Road facility, at Miller Road and McDonald Drive, which treats water from the North Indian Bend Wash Superfund site.

The well had been shut down in January. Although there are no plans to reintroduce the well into the drinking supply, the water going to the canal meets federal Clean Water Act standards, Bilbrey said.