Advisory Panel on Water Cleanup Plan Convenes

Los Angeles water officials Tuesday night convened the first meeting of a 22-member community panel that will monitor city efforts to clean up contamination that has tainted nearly half the drinking-water wells in the San Fernando Valley.

Several environmental groups recently criticized the Department of Water and Power for delaying the creation of the panel, formed at the request of the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Since 1985, the DWP and the EPA have been designing a study and cleanup plan for three growing zones of pollution in wells operated by Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale and La Crescenta.

Later this month, the EPA is expected to approve $7.5 million to fund the two-year study and $4.4 million for a temporary treatment facility in North Hollywood.

The advisory panel includes representatives of businesses, government or community groups.

Several panel members had complained to the EPA that the DWP was dragging its feet because it was not interested in having the community involved in the project. “This is long overdue,” said Michael Kent, a panel member and research associate for Citizens for a Better Environment, a nonprofit organization that calls attention to water problems around the state.