I
103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2853
To amend the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act of 1980 (Superfund) to establish a public-private partner-
ship demonstration project for the cleanup of groundwater pollution
in the San Gabriel Basin.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
AUGUST 4, 1993
Mr. TORRES (for himself, Mr. BECERRA, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. BEILENSON, Mr.
BROWN of California, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. CUNNINGHAM, Mr. DELLUMS,
Mr. DIXON, Mr. DOOLEY, Mr. DOOLITTLE, Mr. DORNAN, Mr. DREIER,
Mr. EDWARDS of California, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. FARR of California, Mr.
FAZIO, Mr. FILNER, Mr. GALLEGLY, Mr. HAMBURG, Ms. HARMAN, Mr.
HORN, Mr. HUFFINGTON, Mr. HUNTER, Mr. KIM, Mr. LANTOS, Mr.
LEHMAN, Mr. LEWIS of California, Mr. MARTINEZ, Mr. MATSUI, Mr.
MCCANDLESS, Mr. MILLER of California, Mr. MINETA, Mr. MOORHEAD,
Mr. PACKARD, Ms. PELOSI, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD,
Ms. SCHENK, Mr. STARK, Mr. THOMAS of California, Ms. WATERS, and
Ms. WOOLSEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred jointly
to the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Public Works and
Transportation
A BILL
To amend the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Com-
pensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (Superfund) to es-
tablish a public-private partnership demonstration project
for the cleanup of groundwater pollution in the San
Gabriel Basin.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
HR 2853 IH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘San Gabriel Basin
Demonstration Project Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The San Gabriel Basin presents a unique
set of environmental problems.
(2) The San Gabriel Valley is an area of 195
square miles located approximately 10 to 20 miles
northeast of downtown Los Angeles in Los Angeles
County. It is the home of 1,000,000 to 1,500,000
people who rely on the groundwater of the San
Gabriel Basin for their primary drinking water.
(3) The San Gabriel Basin is the most heavily
contaminated potable groundwater basin in the
United States.
(4) The groundwater in the San Gabriel Basin
is heavily contaminated with toxic volatile organic
compounds 
(VOCs) 
including 
trichloroethylene
(TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), and carbon tetra-
chloride (CTC). The contamination levels vary
throughout the Valley.
(5) Four separate areas of contamination in the
San Gabriel Basin are listed on the National Prior-
ity List (NPL) of Superfund. The areas where the
HR 2853 IH
VOC contamination exceeds drinking water stand-
ards covers approximately 30 to 40 square miles.
(6) The VOCs in the San Gabriel Basin have
been generated by hundreds of commercial and in-
dustrial facilities scattered throughout the San
Gabriel Valley, over a period of more than 30 years.
(7) The San Gabriel Basin is also heavily con-
taminated with nitrates as a result of hundreds of
years of agriculture and ranching in the Valley as
well as from industrial and residential septic sys-
tems.
(8) Once contaminated, groundwater is very dif-
ficult to clean up.
(9) A plume of polluted groundwater will mi-
grate and spread contaminants wherever it flows.
The many areas of groundwater contamination
throughout the San Gabriel Basin move at different
rates and in different directions, depending on the
density of the contaminants, the character of the aq-
uifer, and the local flow patterns. In the San Gabriel
Basin, flow patterns may be changing directions due
to fluctuating pumping rates throughout the Basin
and other factors.
HR 2853 IH
(10) Complicating the cleanup in the San
Gabriel Basin is the fact that 45 different water
purveyors take water from the basin.
(11) Because the groundwater flows under hun-
dreds of different facilities, apportioning responsibil-
ity could be very complicated and could ultimately be
a very litigious process.
(12) There are approximately 275 public water
supply wells in the San Gabriel Basin. Eighty wells
have contamination levels exceeding current Federal
drinking water standards. Some of these wells have
been abandoned and replaced with new wells in clean
areas. In other contaminated wells, pumping contin-
ues but the groundwater is blended with clean water
so that distributed water meets the drinking water
standards.
(13) The San Gabriel Basin presents a unique
opportunity for the community to solve a difficult
problem, by working together with the Federal Gov-
ernment in a public-private partnership.
SEC. 3. SAN GABRIEL BASIN DEMONSTRATION PROJECT.
Title I of the Comprehensive Envrionmental Re-
sponse, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980
(Superfund) is amended by adding at the end the following
new section:
HR 2853 IH
‘‘SEC. 127. SAN GABRIEL BASIN DEMONSTRATION PROJECT.
‘‘(a) TREATMENT OF WATER.—(1) As promptly as
practicable after the date of enactment of this section but
not later than 6 months after such date, the Administrator
shall enter into one or more cooperative agreements or
contracts with the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Au-
thority, or a successor public agency, (hereinafter in this
Act referred to as the ‘Authority’) to provide water treat-
ment to remove volatile organic compounds from the
groundwater in the San Gabriel Basin. In the case of the
projects described in paragraph (3)(B), the contracts or
cooperative agreements shall also include the Water Re-
plenishment District of Southern California and the
Central Basin Municipal Water District. Implementation
of such contracts or cooperative agreements shall be con-
tingent upon a determination by the Administrator that
the preconditions of subsection (b) have been met.
‘‘(2) The Authority may contract with other public
agencies to provide water treatment services or facilities
or related services and facilities, subject to approval by
the Administrator and pursuant to the decision rendered
in Los Angeles Superior Court Case #924128, Upper San
Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District v. City of Alham-
bra, et al.
‘‘(3) Contracts or cooperative agreements under this
subsection shall be consistent, insofar as possible, with the
HR 2853 IH
April 17, 1990 draft Basin-Wide Technical Plan prepared
by the Administrator, and shall include but not be limited
to the following elements:
‘‘(A) BALDWIN
PARK.—Proposed capital ex-
penditures in the vicinity of Baldwin Park over the
next 10 years, including $4,500,000 for monitoring
wells, $14,500,000 for up to 7 wellhead treatment
plants, and $136,000,000 for a conjunctive-use plant
designed to clean up the Basin and at the same time
allow utilization of the basin as a storage facility
which will increase reliability of water supplies in
Southern California. Such expenditures shall include
a water supply component jointly funded by the Met-
ropolitan Water District of Southern California and
the Bureau of Reclamation (as authorized by Public
Law 102–579), and a VOC clean-up component
funded by the Project. Proposed operating costs for
these projects will increase gradually to about
$32,000,000 per year at the end of the 10-year
period.
‘‘(B) WHITTIER
NARROWS.—Proposed capital
expenditures, including $1,000,000 for engineering
assessment, 
$3,000,000 
for 
monitoring 
wells,
$11,500,000 for wellhead projects, and $20,000,000
for regional treatment plants to prevent contami-
HR 2853 IH
nated groundwater from moving from the San Ga-
briel Basin toward the Central Basin through the
Whittier Narrows and proposed operating costs for
such projects which at the end of the 10-year period
equal approximately $3,000,000 per year.
‘‘(C) PUENTE BASIN AREA.—Proposed capital
expenditures which include $2,000,000 for engineer-
ing assessments, $3,000,000 for monitoring wells,
and $10,000,000 for regional plants in the Puente
Valley area to extract and treat highly contaminated
groundwater to meet water supply needs and pro-
posed operating costs for such projects which, at the
end of the 10-year period will equal approximately
$2,000,000 per year.
‘‘(D) ARCADIA, EL MONTE, MONROVIA, GLEN-
DORA.—Proposed capital expenditures in these
areas, including $3,000,000 for monitoring wells and
$7,500,000 for up to 5 wellhead treatment plants
and proposed operating costs for such projects which
will equal about $2,000,000 per year at the end of
the 10-year period.
Federal funds made available under provisions of law
other than this section or other provisions of this Act for
any expenditure referred to in subparagraphs (A), (B),
HR 2853 IH
(C), or (D) shall not be treated as costs of remedial action
recoverable under section 107(a)(4)(A) of this Act.
‘‘(4) Contracts or cooperative agreements under this
subsection shall provide for consultation with—
‘‘(A) the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal
Water District,
‘‘(B) the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster,
‘‘(C) the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water
District,
‘‘(D) the Three Valleys Municipal Water Dis-
trict,
‘‘(E) the Central Basin Municipal Water Dis-
trict,
‘‘(F) the Water Replenishment District of
Southern California,
‘‘(G) the San Gabriel Valley Protective Associa-
tion,
‘‘(H) the San Gabriel River Watermaster,
‘‘(I) the Metropolitan Water District of South-
ern California,
‘‘(J) the California State Water Resources Con-
trol Board, and
‘‘(K) the California Regional Water Quality
Control Board, Los Angeles Region.