In 1997, the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin, a source of drinking water to tens of thousands of San Bernardino County residents, was found to be contaminated by TCE and perchlorate. According to EPA, "the contamination has forced the closure of numerous public drinking water supply wells and caused hardships for Rialto, Colton and neighboring areas dependent on the basin for their drinking water." Ever since, the City of Rialto has attempted to treat the contaminated wells, remediate the perchlorate and TCE, and also recover costs for its efforts from a number of potentially responsible parties (PRP's).

In a 2005, when EPA granted the affected cities more than $400,000 towards the cost of clean-up, the San Bernardino Sun (CA) explained why this money was "just a drop in the bucket":

It costs more than $1 million to install perchlorate filters on a well, and about $500,000 a year for maintenance.
...
Fontana Water Co. General Manager Mike McGraw said the city spent about $3 million to set up treatment for two contaminated wells.
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[Colton] has spent more than $4 million to date treating three wells for perchlorate, Medina said. He wouldn't rule out a rate increase.
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Rialto is suing the Department of Defense and 42 of its contractors, as well as fireworks manufacturers, for perchlorate contamination. One defendant, B.F. Goodrich, gave $4 million to the cities and district.

Rialto has spent about $7.6 million on legal fees and cleanup. It is treating two of its wells for perchlorate contamination.

Fast forward to 2008. After spending nearly $20 million trying to "hold dozens of suspected polluters responsible," Rialto has just fired their city attorney (Bob Owens, who allegedly was quarterbacking Rialto's strategy for recovering costs from other polluters) and is facing significant uncertainty as it prepares to determine what's next.

Meanwhile, on the City of Rialto's website, in addition to tracking the latest clean-up/lawsuit news and developments, the following declaration appears:

The City will continue to provide the citizens of Rialto with clean, safe, and affordable drinking water. It will also pursue parties that are responsible for the perchlorate pollution to pay for the clean up of the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin. It will repay Rialto’s ratepayers for the costs incurred in forcing the polluters to clean it up.

Henry Garcia, City Administrator

As always, we'll try to keep you posted.