The Kettleman Hills Facility: There's More Than You Know
Safe and Essentail for California's Environmental Stewardship
It is essential for California to safely dispose of its own hazardous waste, and Kettleman Hills is essential to achieving that goal. A premier world-class facility, Kettleman Hills is also the most thoroughly analyzed hazardous waste facility in the country. In 2010, in response to concerns about potential public health impacts in Kettleman City, CalEPA and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) undertook an investigation unprecedented in scope to determine the possible sources of cancer, birth defects and other public health impacts in Kettleman City. The result: no linkage has been found between facility activities and any public health impacts in Kettleman City.
But there’s a lot more to the story. The facts about Kettleman Hills might surprise you.
Kettleman Hills is Safe
Cancer and Birth Defects: Based on exhaustive analysis, including more than 25 years of data from the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program and data from the California Cancer Registry since 1988, CDPH found that:
- There is no link between birth defects in Kettleman City and any activities at the Kettleman Hills Facility and no patterns among birth defect cases in Kettleman City to suggest a common cause.
- The census tract that includes Kettleman City experienced the same types of cancers as found elsewhere and fewer cancers than were expected for the area. No occurrence of the most common form of childhood cancer was found in Kettleman City.
Air Quality: Extensive studies and long-term air monitoring at the Kettleman Hills Facility and in Kettleman City show that potential emissions from the facility do not pose health risks in residential areas in and around Kettleman City. A health risk assessment prepared for the investigating agencies found that risks in and around Kettleman City associated with Kettleman Hills emissions are at least 700 times lower than the background risk levels.
Drinking Water: The Kettleman Hills facility poses no risk to Kettleman City’s two drinking water wells.
- CalEPA has determined that it is impossible for wastewater from Kettleman Hills to affect Kettleman City’s wells, because geological formations beneath the facility divert groundwater flow to the west, away from the city's wells.
- Long-term, extensive data from approximately 50 groundwater monitoring wells on and around the facility over the last 25 years confirm that Kettleman Hills poses no threat to Kettleman City’s drinking water.