Read the latest update to NASA's groundwater cleanup project Community Involvement Plan.
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Welcome to the NASA Groundwater Cleanup Program Web site for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), created in conjunction with NASA's cleanup responsibilities under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), sometimes referred to as "superfund." This site provides community members and interested parties convenient access to information associated with CERCLA environmental cleanup activities at JPL. This website is intended to provide visitors with the latest news about NASA cleanup activities, the ability to search and retrieve documents from the Information Repository database, including groundwater monitoring and other reports and articles related to the groundwater cleanup, and the ability to contact Program Managers for additional information. NASA is committed to its cleanup responsibilities at JPL and to keeping the public informed about its activities. We encourage you to sign up on our mailing list, as well as submit questions or comments via the feedback button.
News UpdatesThe June 2009 Bilingual Newsletter is now available - one more way to learn about NASA's cleanup progress! Click here for the June 2009 Newsletter concerning NASA's effort to remove chemicals in the groundwater beneath and adjacent to JPL. This update is another way NASA is taking steps to communicate with the public with regard to its groundwater cleanup program.
Construction Underway for the Monk Hill Groundwater Treatment System
On March 17, 2009, residents, civic leaders and federal agency representatives broke ground for a new NASA-funded City of Pasadena groundwater treatment plant located next to the City's Windsor Reservoir. For more information about the Groundbreaking Ceremony, see the cover story from the June 2009 Groundwater Cleanup Program Newsletter. Also, see photos of the ceremony. For more information about the treatment plant, please view the fact sheet. Also, please see the displays from the Groundbreaking Ceremony.
NASA Green Initiatives, March 2009
NASA pursues green initiatives at its Centers across the country. Read about NASA's green initiatives for water cleanup at JPL here and see what some of the other Centers are doing, too.
2008 -- Another year of Progress for the Groundwater Cleanup Program The year 2008 marked significant accomplishments and progress for NASA's Groundwater Cleanup Program at JPL. Read about all of the milestones reached in the 2008 Year in Review. Proposed NASA-funded Monk Hill Treatment System Approved
On July 10, 2008, the City of Pasadena Planning and Development Department held a public hearing regarding Pasadena Water and Power's (PWP) permit application for the siting of a NASA-funded groundwater treatment system. Design review followed and permits have been approved to continue to move the project forward. This system is part of NASA's overall groundwater clean up efforts. Systems are already in place to treat on-site groundwater at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the area to the East -Southeast with a system in place at the Lincoln Avenue Water Company. When operational, this new system will treat the mid-plume area at the Pasadena-owned Windsor Reservoir on Windsor Avenue in Northwest Pasadena. JPL and NASA Groundwater Cleanup Team Up for 2008 Open House
Members of the NASA Groundwater Cleanup project set up a booth with displays and answered questions during JPL's annual Open House, host to thousands of visitors over the weekend of May 3-4, 2008. NASA Groundwater Cleanup team members spoke personally with visitors about water remediation in general, as well as about the current groundwater cleanup effort at JPL. Newsletters and fact sheets about the project were made available for visitors to take home. Click here to view photos from the event.
Notice of Availability: Record of Decision for Offsite Groundwater Treatment Near Windsor Reservoir: Next Step is City Permitting Process On August 1, 2007, the federal and state regulators that oversee NASA's groundwater cleanup program approved a NASA Interim Record of Decision that calls for NASA funding of two groundwater treatment plants. The plants include the existing Lincoln Avenue Water Company treatment system in Altadena as well as the system proposed to be located at the Windsor Reservoir site owned by the City of Pasadena. The next step for the approval of the Windsor Reservoir treatment plant is the City of Pasadena's permitting process. The official Record of Decision is now available. The official newspaper notice provides a brief summary of the action. For a February 2007 fact sheet describing community involvement opportunities in the consideration of, funding for, and construction of a Pasadena water treatment plant, click here
A public comment period on the Proposed Plan that led to the Record of Decision was held from April 19 through July 7, 2006. A public meeting/community information session on the Proposed Plan was held on Wednesday, May 3, 2006 at the Altadena Community Center in Altadena, where comments were accepted. Click here to view the slideshow presentation from the meeting. For a copy of the transcript of the public meeting session, click here. To see displays prepared for that evening's public meeting, click here.
Area residents who attended the Public Meeting asked for additional information on the “preferred alternative” site that NASA was proposing for a Pasadena treatment system, and subsequently, NASA released its analysis (called a "Technical Memorandum") of alternative locations for a proposed groundwater treatment plant. NASA also held a meeting with the public on June 21, 2006, at the Altadena Community Center to discuss the proposed Pasadena groundwater treatment plant. For a copy of that Technical Memorandum, click here.
NASA reviewed and responded to all of the comments in the Responsiveness Summary, which can be found on page 63, Section III of the Record of Decision.
Results of Additional Investigation Available As part of NASA's responsibilities under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERLCA), NASA has performed an additional investigation in accordance with the Remedial Investigation Addendum Work Plan. The objectives of the investigation were to (1) evaluate the downgradient (southern) extent of chemicals originating from the JPL facility and (2) to determine if the occurrence of perchlorate in the Sunset Reservoir area was associated with migration from the JPL facility.
The study is called a Technical Memorandum. We also have produced fact sheets about the results of the study and the analytic tools that were used to provide a better understanding of the technical information. One fact sheet explains the Four Tools used as the basis for the study. The other fact sheet summarizes the Results of the study.
In addition, Dr. Neil Sturchio, an expert in stable isotope analysis with the University of Illinois-Chicago, has issued a summary and analysis of the isotopic section of the report. View Dr. Sturchio's summary here. For other reviews of the "Additional Investigations Report," click here.
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