ùThere is a continuing debate among water officials over whether the aquifer polluted by Motorola 52nd Street will be tapped during a severe drought, such as the drought currently ravaging California. In California's San Gabriel Valley, citizens are being charged higher water bills because their groundwater must first be stripped of TCE before it is drinkable. There is no financial mechanism in place to ensure that Arizona citizens would not have to pay to have solvents cleaned from their groundwater in times of drought.
ùThe two state agencies entrusted with preserving Arizona's groundwater for future generations differ over how to contend with the state's polluted groundwater. The Arizona Department of Water Resources favors forcing polluters to pay for as much cleanup as possible now. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is moving toward the national Superfund "risk-based" plan.
ù Both state and federal health assessments of the sites have been cursory and inadequate. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry "health assessments" of Superfund sites has been criticized for its scientific inadequacy by a General Accounting Office panel of scientists. State health officials themselves concede that their statistics on cancer in the two Superfund sites are incomplete.
ù Frustrated by the undocumented illnesses in the neighborhoods near the plants, citizens have attempted to conduct their own amateur epidemiological studies. Among those who say they logged unusual numbers of illnesses are a state legislator, a theology student who conducted an exhaustive telephone survey, an advocate for the Mexicano-Chicano community and a former Motorola worker.
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