The State - News from April 21, 1986

Concentrations of nitrate have been found in the Livermore-Amador Valley ground water basin, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. Using a monitoring network of about 130 wells, researchers looked at data collected between 1975 and 1982 to determine the ground and surface water conditions in the valley. The report found the nitrate concentrations in several isolated wells in unsewered rural areas that exceeded Environmental Protection Agency’s health standards, and attributed the cause to past and present treated waste water disposal areas. However, the concentrations would have “no effect on drinking water,” Stephen Sorenson, the report’s senior author, said. “The ground water we’re talking about is not a source of drinking water.”