She was instrumental in getting Olin Corp to remediate contamination
Published in the Jan. 8, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Some time this year, a family picnic area at Harvey Bear Ranch County Park might be dedicated in memory of Sylvia Hamilton, the unofficial “mayor” of the unincorporated community of San Martin. Hamilton, who died Feb. 16 at 70, played a pivotal leadership role in ensuring Olin Corporation cleaned up the perchlorate that leaked for 40 years into the South Valley’s ground-water basin from its former road flare manufacturing site in Morgan Hill.
Photo by Marty Cheek
Morgan Hill resident Swanee Edwards and San Martin resident Bob Cerruti toast the memory of Sylvia Hamilton who died in February 2013. All three were instrumental in getting Olin Corp. to clean up perchlorate contamination in an eight-mile long swath of land from south Morgan Hill to San Martin.
Dennis Kennedy, a member of the Santa Clara Valley Water District board since last January, recalled the heated emotions on Feb. 12, 2003 when the public was told at a meeting at San Martin/Gwinn Elementary School that plumes of the toxic perchlorate chemical contaminated the South Valley aquifers. Perchlorate can damage human health by interfering with the thyroid gland’s ability to take in iodide.
“It was really a disaster, especially for San Martin,” said Kennedy, the mayor of Morgan Hill at that time. “Over 1,000 people required bottled water, it was that huge. And there was a lot of anger against Olin Corporation. Everyone wanted to sue … Even the city of Morgan Hill, we were on the verge of suing Olin.”
He praised Hamilton for focusing everyone on finding a solution to fix the problem by starting the Perchlorate Community Advisory Group. With her gracious southern style, the retired school teacher became a leading force in the decision not to sue Olin but give the Clayton, Missouri-based corporation a chance to make the water supply safe again, Kennedy said.
Last month, PCAG held a meeting at the San Martin Lions Club where the public learned from Dean Tomas, engineering geologist for the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, that all but six of the ground water wells used by homes and farms now had less than six parts of perchlorate per billion, a safe level according to the state of California’s health regulations for water. “Sylvia turned out to be right,” Kennedy said. “By letting Olin spend its money on fixing the problem rather than on attorneys, it was a successful conclusion. Sylvia kept us all focused on the objective, and we came out with a successful result.”
San Martin resident Bob Cerruti recalled how he came to serve as PCAG’s co-chair with Hamilton after she called an emergency community meeting Feb. 13, 2003 to discuss the problem. At that gathering, PCAG was started as a grassroots organization with founding members including farmers, ranchers and concerned citizens. Because of Hamilton’s success in forming the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance to provide the community a collective voice to present issues to the Santa Clara County government, citizens asked her to be PCAG’s chairperson.
“She graciously accepted,” Cerruti said. “And while I was sitting next to her, I said, ‘If you need a sidekick, I can help you out and be your vice-chair.’ And she said, ‘OK, let’s get the job done.’”
By 2008, significant progress had been made in the perchlorate cleanup program. Much of this can be attributed to PCAG’s influence in getting Olin to quickly remediate its former manufacturing site (now an empty field on the corner of Tennant and Railroad avenues) to prevent more of the contaminant from getting in the ground water, said Andria Ventura, the toxic programs manager at nonprofit Clean Water Action. Ventura became involved with PCAG soon after its formation.
Many communities are affected by water contamination problems, including perchlorate, she said, but the Morgan Hill-San Martin area had the model way of handling it.
“Everyone came together as a community,” Ventura said. “They worked with the local regulators, they worked with the polluter, they worked with all the people involved in this problem. Over the course of time, a treatment plan was developed and implemented. A lot of the reason that happened was Sylvia Hamilton. Basically, her leadership skills brought people together so that they talked with each other and found solutions.”
Despite many personal hardships in her life, Hamilton proved to be an optimistic person to the very end, said Swanee Edwards who joined PCAG in 2005 to represent Morgan Hill. The two women soon became fast friends as they worked together on the perchlorate problem. Edwards saw the toll on Hamilton’s body as her emphysema grew worse, requiring her to use an oxygen tank.
“One thing I learned about Sylvia is how her husband left her years and years ago, just walked off and never came back,” Edwards said. “And then she lost her two children in separate car accidents. She had an incredibly tragic life. But she kept her eyes on the prize, if you will, and loved San Martin with everything she had. She was just an amazing, remarkable, unforgettable person.”
After Hamilton died, many of the people who knew her decided she deserved to be honored with a special memorial. Several suggestions were made including a statue of the “Mayor of San Martin.” The idea came up for a family picnic area dedicated to her at Harvey Bear Ranch County Park, Edwards said. As a school teacher for many years, Hamilton loved children and no doubt would have appreciated this way to remember her, she said.
Funds are now being raised to pay for the picnic area.
“Even with that deadly disease, she carried on and would not be stopped,” she said. “I can’t imagine a woman I admired more. She just epitomized small-town America.”
