How long has it been in our water supply?

In some areas, as long as Rancho Cordova has existed.

A spill of UDMH rocket fuel produced a fish kill on the American River in 1961.

At that time UDMH was detected in a gravel pit just to the west of today's Sunrise Bridge.
Underground measurements of NDMA confirm the hydrazine flowed down Buffalo
Creek towards today's Sunriver development, and it also may have flowed down
Alder Creek into the Valley Ditch and then along Coloma Road.

The EPA currently presumes that perchlorate and TCE found in shallow aquifers
in the vicinity of Malaga Way west of Coloma Road flowed there via the Valley
Ditch, and the wastes also may have flowed along the surface channels
further south feeding the dredgers active in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Measurements taken in January and February 1963 showed high levels of
perchlorate in most of Rancho Cordova's wells, but the validity of these
measurements is in question. TCE and perchlorate were detected in wells
around Mitchell Middle School in 1979, and carbon filters for removing the
TCE (but not the perchlorate) were put on in the early 1980s.

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