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,`, jr MAY /0, 2.0 13 City Hall of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA, 92701 Dear Mayor Pulido and Councilmembers Benavides, Tinajero, Amezcua, Martinez, Reyna, and Sarmiento: We are writing this letter to let you know that SACReD supports SB 658 which will clarify that the Orange County Water District (OCWD) has the right to recover all costs from polluters to clean up the contamination they caused in the Orange County groundwater basin. During its groundwater monitoring and testing activities, OCWD detected the presence of pollutants, commonly referred to as Volatile Organic Compounds or "VOCs," in the northern and southern portion of our groundwater basin. A plume of VOC contamination in the groundwater is migrating towards parts of the north basin that supply drinking water, and three drinking water wells have been removed from service because contaminants were approaching elevated levels. VOCs are known to cause a variety of harmful impacts to human health and must be effectively remediated in order to preserve and protect public health, public safety and local economic stability. As residents of Santa Ana, this issue is of particular importance because a large portion of the southern contamination has been found within our own city. We believe that is unjust to force water rate payers, rather than large wealthy businesses, to foot the bill for cleaning up this pollution in our city. The California Legislature provided OCWD with the right to file suit to recover from polluters its reasonable costs to investigate and clean up contamination of the groundwater basin. Unfortunately, some polluters are attempting to exploit perceived legal loopholes to escape the financial responsibilities of their contamination by shifting the cost of the clean up onto blameless ratepayers and hampering the clean -up process. Remediation of pollutants is critical for safe water supplies and the community at -large should not have to pay to clean up contamination caused by others. Polluters alone must be held responsible for their actions and pay the full cost to address the impacts of their behavior. As such, SACReD and our five core organizations supports SB 658 and looks forward to working with your office and OCWD to ensure the bill's passage. Sincerely, Community Leaders with SACReD 46ACR@® SANTA ANA COLLABORATIVE FOR RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT Colaborati vo de Santa Ana para el Dcsarrollo Responsablc