This is just one post in the Perchlorate Category

EPA’s lack of setting a limit for perchlorate in drinking water won’t affect cleanup efforts underway at contaminated Whitaker Bermite site

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 8, 2008 at 11:53 am

Perchlorate contamination is an issue around here at Aquafornia’s home base. Right smack dab in the center of town is the contaminated Whitaker-Bermite munitions site, which is currently being cleaned up. Perchlorate contamination has forced closure of at least four wells in the past years. From the Santa Clarita Signal, news today that even though the EPA may decide not to set a level for perchlorate, this will not affect the current clean up efforts underway:

Whether or not the EPA moves to limit the amount of a rocket fuel additive in drinking water won’t affect the efforts already under way to remove the cancer-causing chemical from Santa Clarita groundwater, a local water official says.

Responding to news out of Washington that the Environmental Protection Agency is unlikely to take action to rid drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel byproduct, Dan Masnada, general manager of the Castaic Lake Water Agency, said the ongoing cleanup of the Whittaker-Bermite site speaks for itself.

“The bottom line is that it doesn’t have a whole lot of relevance,” Masnada said about the EPA announcement. “What is most important is that we have a settlement agreement regarding the cleaning up of perchlorate and we’re moving ahead on that.”

On Tuesday, Benjamin Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the Environmental Protection Agency, told a Senate hearing that the EPA is aware that perchlorate is widespread and poses health risks, the Associated Press reported. But, he said that after years of study, the EPA has yet to determine whether regulating perchlorate in drinking water would do much good.

Democratic senators called the EPA announcement unacceptable. They argued that states and local communities shouldn’t have to bear the expense of cleansing their drinking water of perchlorate, which has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states.