This is just one post in the Perchlorate Category

EPA might not act to limit rocket fuel in drinking water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 7, 2008 at 5:58 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

A top Environmental Protection Agency official told a Senate committee Tuesday that there was “a distinct possibility” that the agency would not limit the amount of perchlorate, a toxic ingredient of solid rocket fuel, that is allowable in drinking water.

State officials and water suppliers across the nation have been waiting for the EPA to set a standard for several years because perchlorate has contaminated the water supplies of at least 11 million people. Last year, California, impatient with the EPA’s indecision, set its own standard.

Benjamin H. Grumbles, the EPA’s assistant administrator for water, said the EPA would decide by the end of the year whether to regulate perchlorate. Scientific studies have shown that the chemical blocks iodide and suppresses thyroid hormones, which are necessary for the normal brain development of a fetus or infant.

“We know that perchlorate can have an adverse effect and we’re concerned about that,” Grumbles told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the committee, told Grumbles that she heard from EPA staffers that there was a strong likelihood that the agency would decide against setting any standard. In response, Grumbles said that was “a distinct possibility.”

Read the full text of this article from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

From the Associated Press:

“EPA is trying to shunt the scientists to the back, put the DOD contractors to the front,” Boxer chided. “We want to see action by the scientists. We want to see a standard set.”

Grumbles told Boxer it was possible that instead of a regulation, EPA would issue a public health advisory, which would simply provide information. After the hearing he told reporters that a decision to regulate perchlorate was also still on the table.

Most perchlorate contamination resulted from Defense Department activities. The Pentagon could face huge cleanup costs if EPA sets a national drinking water standard for the contaminant, and DOD has tussled with EPA over the issue, according to a report last week by congressional investigators.

Perchlorate is particularly widespread in California and the Southwest, where it’s been found in groundwater and in the Colorado River, a drinking water source for 20 million people. It’s also been found in lettuce and other foods. Grumbles is awaiting the results of a Food and Drug Administration study that could shed light on how much perchlorate ingestion comes from food versus water.