Department of Defense, Defense Contractors Lobby to Block Perchlorate Advisory
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 24, 2009 at 7:23 amFrom the New York Times:
The Pentagon and the defense industry is lobbying the White House to prevent U.S. EPA from tightening a health advisory for a rocket-fuel chemical.
Representatives of the Defense Department, the Navy and aerospace and defense companies have met with the Office of Management and Budget this month to discuss a pending EPA decision on the chemical, perchlorate.
In a document presented to OMB, the groups argue that rushing a decision will have “adverse public health consequences and unintended negative effects on all drinking water regulatory programs, and on voluntary, state and federal cleanup efforts.”
Perchlorate contamination of drinking water, which is linked to DOD and contractor activities at rocket test sites, has been documented in at least 35 states and the District of Columbia. The chemical can inhibit the thyroid gland’s iodine uptake, interfering with fetal development.
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
$2.8M should go to Rialto water treatment, officials say
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 6, 2009 at 6:39 amFrom the San Bernardino Sun:
The city has different plans for about $2.8million initially granted by the State Water Resources Control Board to study groundwater contaminated with perchlorate.
Together with the Rialto-based West Valley Water District, the city has requested that the money instead be used for a project that would treat 2,000 gallons of contaminated water per minute at the city’s well No. 6 and the water district’s well No. 11. Each well is inactive.
In an April letter to the Riverside-based Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, the city and the water district said the money should be used for the treatment project because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency already is installing six groundwater monitoring wells at a 160-acre site northeast of town where perchlorate is flowing.
And Emhart Industries, a defunct subsidiary of Black and Decker Corp., is conducting a soil investigation at the site.
Read more from the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
San Bernardino County must come clean on groundwater pollution
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2009 at 6:45 amFrom the San Bernardino Sun, this commentary by Anthony Araiza, general manager of the West Valley Water District in Rialto:
We are unfortunately compelled to call public attention to the inaccurate information about San Bernardino County’s role in contaminating local groundwater provided to you a few days ago by the office of Supervisor Josie Gonzales.
In a point of view (”County is cleaning up perchlorate,” March 26), Supervisor Gonzales stated: “Before the county purchased property in north Rialto for the future expansion of the Mid-Valley Landfill, the county hired an expert to test the land for hazardous materials. Those tests did not find significant contamination in the soil.”
We strongly disagree with these statements. It is time for the County of San Bernardino, and its elected supervisors, to honestly and openly talk about the illegal conduct associated with the county’s Mid-Valley Sanitary Landfill expansion, and the serious harm these activities have inflicted on the citizens of the county, the environment and our precious local drinking water supply.
With all due respect to Supervisor Gonzales, the facts now being disclosed about the Mid-Valley Landfill clearly demonstrate that county officials acted, and continue to act, in complete and utter disregard of applicable state and federal laws.
Based on reports provided by the county, it now appears that county officials knowingly - and with reckless disregard of the law - demolished contaminated bunkers at a state-permitted hazardous waste site, and spread the contaminated waste debris onto adjacent parcels and unknown locations offsite. Much of this hazardous debris was improperly used to construct noise berms on the perimeter of the county’s property. The hazardous chemicals in this debris included lead, arsenic, mercury, asbestos and perchlorate - the chemical currently contaminating groundwater and the region’s drinking water wells.
Read more from the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
Coverage wrap-up: Huge public lands bill gets final congressional approval; expands wilderness protection, provides for San Joaquin River Restoration and perchlorate clean-up
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 26, 2009 at 7:49 am
From the Los Angeles Times:
Reporting from Washington — In the largest expansion of wilderness protection in 15 years, Congress today sent President Obama legislation that would conserve a wide swath of the West, including stretches of California from the desert to the Sierra.
The lands bill, which passed the House 285 to 140, is expected to be signed by the president this year. It would give the highest level of federal protection to more than 2 million acres in nine states — prohibiting new roads, the use of motorized or mechanized vehicles, most commercial activities, logging, new structures, new mining claims and new grazing. That is almost as much land as was designated for protection during George W. Bush’s entire presidency.
In California, which currently has 14 million acres of wilderness (second only to Alaska, which has more than 57 million acres), the bill would protect 700,000-plus acres. The measure also would authorize $88 million to fund restoration efforts on the San Joaquin River and provide $61 million toward cleanup of polluted groundwater in the San Gabriel Valley area.
More from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
From McClatchy Newspapers:
Dubbed the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, the bill is stuffed with provisions ranging from designating a Wyoming wild-and-scenic river and honoring Bill Clinton’s birthplace to creating a national institute for the study of caves.
The bill will be expensive, over time. It authorizes projects expected to cost more than $5.5 billion over five years if Congress provides the money, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It also adds an additional $900 million in spending after 2013, the nonpartisan budget office estimates.
Most controversial may be the expansion of federally designated wilderness areas — the highest level of federal protection.
“The federal government already owns 30 percent of the total land area of the United States,” said Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa. “I don’t think we need any more.”
Radanovich and his fellow Republican from California’s San Joaquin Valley, Rep. Devin Nunes, voted against the bill. Nunes insisted the bill’s provision diverting San Joaquin River water from farms to environmental protection “will ensure higher unemployment” in the Valley.
But by including upward of 170 different provisions affecting many different states, Democratic legislative tacticians secured majority support. The omnibus packaging also meant Radanovich ended up voting against a bill that included provisions he authored and still supports, including the Madera County groundwater bank and the San Joaquin River restoration.
Read more from McClatchy Newspapers by clicking here.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
In one of the boldest river restorations in the Western United States, a 63-mile stretch of the San Joaquin River will be transformed from a dusty ditch into a fish-friendly waterway under legislation approved Wednesday that ends a decades-long dispute between farmers and environmentalists. The $400 million project, approved by Congress as part of a landmark wilderness bill, will increase the amount of water released from the Friant Dam near Fresno into the San Joaquin River. The flows are intended to resurrect the river’s salmon fishery, decimated in the years following the dam’s construction in 1942.
The 15,000 farms in the region will receive between 15 and 19 percent less water from the reserves stored behind the dam. Funds from the measure will help water districts offset that loss with new storage facilities and repairs to existing canals.
President Obama is expected to sign the legislation, sponsored by California Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. It seals a settlement reached in 2006 that followed two decades of battles between environmentalists and fishing groups - who filed a lawsuit in 1988 - and agricultural interests.
Both sides praised the bill, which spells out funding for the program and authorizes a timetable for water releases beginning this fall. “After recent dry years and a collapsing salmon fishery, passage of this bill is good news for fisherman, farmers, and the more than 22 million Californians who rely on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for their water supply,” said Monty Schmitt, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the plaintiffs in the 1980s suit.
More from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
But not everyone is happy, according to Mike Taugher and the Contra Costa Times:
For farmers and a couple of cities, including Fresno, that are served by Friant, the settlement was a way to make the best of a bad situation when a 2004 court decision found that the federal government was illegally depriving the San Joaquin River of water.
Rather than putting their fate in the hands of a judge with the ability to do little more than cut off water supplies to those farmers and cities, they worked out a deal with environmentalists and government agencies.
The settlement means Friant water users give up 15 percent to 20 percent of their water supply by sending it down the river but they also have a chance to get it back. The San Joaquin River flows into the Delta, and massive pumps take water from the Delta back down the San Joaquin Valley. So, in theory, water that is released by Friant down the San Joaquin River could be delivered back to farms through those pumps and canals. “The ability to get this water back was one of the reasons farmers support it,” Jacobsma said, adding that environmental problems in the Delta will make that difficult.
Still, animosity toward the agreement runs strong in places. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, said the agreement would force 300,000 acres of farmland out of production. “The officials responsible will be remembered as architects of the economic and environmental catastrophe that follows,” he predicted.
Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.
The legislation also provides for providing funds to cleanup perchlorate-contaminated groundwater basins in the San Gabriel Valley:
The Water Quality Authority will use the $50 million increase in federal funds to help remove perchlorate - a chemical in rocket fuel and fireworks - from the aquifer that lies below the San Gabriel Valley and provides drinking water to the area.
The legislation is the first step of a two-step process to get the federal funds. It allows federal funding to be used for the cleanup; lawmakers must still actually budget the funds annually. “Today we have taken a big step forward … each year we are going to have to be back at it … to ensure this happens,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, who cosponsored the original legislation by Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas.
The federal government has already contributed approximately $79 million to the cleanup effort, estimated to cost $1 billion to complete. Additional funds have come from the state and from the parties responsible for the contamination.
Before its dangers were known, the aerospace and defense sectors freely dumped perchlorate. The San Gabriel Valley is one the nation’s largest Superfund sites in part because of this contamination. The chemical has been found to reduce the production of thyroid hormones, which are critical for growth and brain development, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
Though the Water Quality Authority does not have the federal dollars in hand, the government’s renewed commitment helps leverage “much more money” from private parties, including those responsible, by bringing them to the negotiating table, Kast said.
Read more from the Whittier Daily News by clicking here.
Sorry, I’m pressed for time this morning, and can’t incorporate everyone this morning; You can hear from Trout Unlimited (IndyBay.org) by clicking here, and from Friends of the River (YubaNet.com) by clicking here.
San Bernardino County is cleaning up perchlorate, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 26, 2009 at 6:22 amFrom the San Bernardino Sun, this commentary by San Bernardino County Supervisor Josie Gonzales, representative of the 5th District, which includes Rialto, Bloomington and parts of Colton, Fontana and San Bernardino:
The County of San Bernardino will clean up any perchlorate in local groundwater for which it is found responsible. It is that simple.
The county has already spent $13million over the past several years treating perchlorate and supplying clean water to Rialto residents. The county’s treatment system is in place to capture any perchlorate determined to be emanating from county property purchased in 1993 for the future expansion of the Mid-Valley Landfill. Over the next several decades, the county will likely spend more than $60 million on the operation of the treatment facility.
Perchlorate was first detected in groundwater in the Rialto Colton Basin in 1997. But to date, the county is the only potentially responsible party to start a groundwater cleanup.
From day one, the county has focused its resources on fixing the problem, rather than litigation. That is why the county has settled with the cities of Rialto and Colton.
That is why the county has a draft settlement with the State Regional Water Quality Control Board to memorialize the county’s ongoing efforts to capture and treat the western perchlorate plume. That is why county lawyers are playing an active role in settlement negotiations between the state and the other potentially responsible parties on finding a solution to the eastern perchlorate plume.
The county is leading this cleanup even though the county never manufactured any perchlorate-containing materials and never introduced any perchlorate into the soils. It is just the right thing to do.
Read more of this commentary by clicking here.
Funds filter down to clean up water: Castaic Lake Water Agency receives more than $1 million to fight groundwater pollution
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 19, 2009 at 2:37 pmFrom the Santa Clarita Signal:
When President Obama signed off on a $410 billion spending bill last week, he kept the money flowing for Castaic Lake Water Agency’s efforts to clean up polluted water here in the Santa Clarita Valley.
Included in the wide-ranging bill is $1.148 million for cleanup at the former Whittaker-Bermite property in the middle of the city.
The water agency has been receiving federal cleanup funding annually for “a number of years,” according to Dan Masnada, general manager of the water agency. “It’s nothing new but it’s very helpful in at least covering some of the costs,” he said.
More from the Santa Clarita Signal by clicking here.
Everyone heads back to negotiating table as county perchlorate settlement is tabled
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 14, 2009 at 6:45 amFrom the Contra Costa Times:
A proposed settlement between San Bernardino County and state water-quality regulators that would require the county to clean up much of the perchlorate contaminating Rialto’s drinking water has been put on hold.
The settlement was scheduled to be considered by the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board at its April 24 meeting. But it has been taken off the calendar, said the board’s assistant executive officer, Kurt Berchtold. Renewed effort will now be put into global settlement talks among all the parties involved in the matter.
“It appeared that various (suspected polluters) would spend considerable effort challenging the county settlement and that would potentially disrupt the global settlement talks,” Berchtold said.
The proposed settlement would hold the county responsible for continuing its cleanup of a portion of the contamination. But other suspected polluters - and there are dozens of them - seemed uncomfortable with the county’s getting its own settlement deal. Some polluters also alleged that most of the board members had conflicts of interest because of contacts about the case with staff, who act as prosecutors against suspected polluters.
Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.
Regional water quality board to weigh San Bernardino County deal to clean up tainted groundwater
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 14, 2009 at 5:44 amFrom the Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:
A regional water quality board will consider approving a settlement calling for San Bernardino County to continue cleanup of a landfill that leaked toxic perchlorate into the groundwater of Colton and Rialto.
Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, said the April 24 hearing is a technicality growing out of the tentative settlement between San Bernardino County and the two cities nearly a year ago.
The earlier settlement called for the county to pay Rialto $4 million and Colton $1 million for the perchlorate contamination. Perchlorate is a chemical found in rocket fuel and fireworks.
“I thought we would have had it (the settlement money) a year ago,” Rialto City Councilman Ed Scott said by phone Friday. “Who knows when we’ll get it? I’m hoping by mid-summer that everything will be finished and we’ll have our settlement with the county.”
Read more from the Press Enterprise by clicking here.
After admitting faults at hearing, new EPA head starts work
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 24, 2009 at 7:05 amFrom Pro Publica:
With little scrutiny or controversy, Lisa Jackson was confirmed by the Senate late last night to head the Environmental Protection Agency after a confirmation hearing where criticisms of Jackson’s tenure as head of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection were given short shrift.
In her first move as EPA chief, Jackson pledged to make science “the backbone for EPA programs [1].” In a memo sent to EPA employees today, Jackson said that reducing greenhouse gas emissions, managing chemical risks, cleaning up hazardous waste and protecting America’s water would receive her personal attention.
As ProPublica reported, Jackson’s approach to virtually all of these goals was criticized when she was head of the New Jersey’s environmental department [2]. In the run-up to her confirmation, Jackson’s critics accused her of being cozy with industry, failing to act on a three-year-old recommendation to regulate perchlorate in drinking water [3], and not fulfilling a promise to fix the state’s hazardous waste program.
Questions about these aspects of her record were only briefly addressed at her confirmation hearing. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, saved these questions for what she called a “lighting round” that took place in the final minutes of Jackson’s confirmation.
Read more from Pro Publica by clicking here.
Los Angeles Superior Court judge issues go-ahead for perchlorate hearings
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 18, 2009 at 7:16 amFrom the San Bernardino Sun:
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge decided Thursday that state hearings to determine whether three companies need to help clean up contaminated drinking water in the Rialto area can proceed.
The State Water Resources Control Board has been trying since 2007 to hold hearings to decide whether Black & Decker, Goodrich and Pyro Spectaculars should pay to help cleanup the local water supply that is contaminated with a number of chemicals, including perchlorate.
The perchlorate, which interferes with the thyroid gland, is flowing from an industrial area in northern Rialto through the city and toward the Santa Ana River. The thyroid gland is necessary for mental and physical development, though local water purveyors are either treating highly contaminated water or not serving it to residents.
“The point is that it is a green light with conditions to proceed, to do what the State Water Board has wanted to do for a few years now,” said Bill Rukeyser, the board’s spokesman.
Read more from the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
Obama EPA nominee Jackson to be asked about regulating perchlorate in drinking water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 13, 2009 at 4:44 pmFrom Pro Publica:
In the latest volley of a years-long battle involving the Environmental Protection Agency, the military and the White House, the EPA announced last week that it will delay its decision [1] on whether to set a drinking water standard for perchlorate, a chemical in rocket fuel that has been found at harmful levels in drinking water across the country. The announcement that the EPA won’t act until it receives advice from the National Academy of Sciences puts the contentious decision onto the already-heavy regulatory agenda awaiting Lisa Jackson, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to head the EPA.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, chair of the Environment and Public Works committee, has promised to raise the issue of perchlorate at Jackson’s confirmation hearing tomorrow. Boxer has called the EPA’s decision “to walk away from this problem and shrug off this danger…immoral.”
Read more from Pro Publica by clicking here.
Senator Feinstein issues statement on EPA’s interim perchlorate health advisory
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 12, 2009 at 1:56 pmFrom Media Newswire:
US Senator Feinstein ( D-Calif. ) today issued the following statement in response to the decision of the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) to issue an interim health advisory for perchlorate, a toxic chemical used to produce rocket fuel.
“A decade has passed since EPA first began studying perchlorate. Further delay is simply unacceptable,” Senator Feinstein said. “However, given that only three months ago the EPA indicated that they did not believe regulating perchlorate was necessary, this announcement appears to be a step in the right direction. It is my hope that the new Administration will recognize the public health risk posed by perchlorate and issue a drinking water standard as soon as possible.”
EPA decides it can’t make up its mind on perchlorate
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 9, 2009 at 10:46 amFrom the San Bernardino Sun website:
For months, the Bush administration seemed set on making a formal decision that no drinking-water standard for perchlorate was necessary.
Now it appears the Obama administration will get the final say.
In a surprising reversal, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it does not plan to decide what the drinking-water standard should be for perchlorate, a common California contaminant used to produce explosives.
The EPA said it would seek the counsel of the National Academy of Sciences, for a second time.
The EPA received more than 32,000 public comments on its preliminary proposal in October not to set a standard.
“They don’t have the backbone to actually go ahead and live up to their responsibility and stand up for public health,” said Renee Sharp, California director of Environmental Working Group,an environmental and public-health advocacy organization.
Read more from the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
Congressman Dreier reintroduces legislation for perchlorate cleanup
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 9, 2009 at 6:05 amFrom the Pasadena Star-News:
Congressman David Dreier, R-San Dimas, kicked off the 111th Congress today by reintroducing legislation to provide funds for ongoing perchlorate clean-up in San Gabriel Valley groundwater.
The measure would increase by $61.2 million federal funds in the San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund, which is used throughout the region for cleanup of perchlorate, a chemical in rocket fuel and fireworks. Under the bill, the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority would receive $50 million and the Central Basin Municipal Water District would receive $11.2 million.
Perchlorate can reduce the production of thyroid hormones, which in fetuses and infants are critical for normal growth and development of the central nervous system, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Therefore, pregnant women and infants are at greatest risk if exposed to perchlorate.
Read more from the Pasadena Star News by clicking here.
Error seen in E.P.A. report on perchlorate
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 1, 2009 at 7:32 amFrom the New York Times:
The Environmental Protection Agency failed to follow its own guidelines and made a basic error in evaluating how a toxic contaminant in rocket fuel harms human health, according to a report by the agency’s inspector general.
The contaminant, perchlorate, has been found in significant levels in drinking water in at least 400 locations; scientific studies indicate that perchlorate blocks the necessary accumulation of iodide in human thyroid glands. Iodide insufficiencies in pregnant women are “associated with permanent mental deficits in the children,” the E.P.A. said.
Perchlorate can occur naturally, but high concentrations have been found near military installations where it was used in testing rockets and missiles.
The new report, issued late Tuesday, said the E.P.A. should not have looked at perchlorate individually, but should have followed its own guidance and examined the cumulative impact of perchlorate, other substances in the environment that inhibit the uptake of iodide by the thyroid and potentially inadequate supplies of iodide in American diets.
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
State reviewing standard for water contaminant found throughout Inland Empire
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 30, 2008 at 8:07 pmFrom the Inland Daily Bulletin:
The state will take another look at the drinking-water standard for a common Inland Empire contaminant.
The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment will review the public health goal for perchlorate - an ingredient in explosives and some fertilizers - in 2009, Sam Delson, the office’s deputy director for external and legislative affairs, said via e-mail.
The public health goal is the first step in setting a drinking-water standard.
Environmentalists, who complained the last public health goal of 6 parts per billion set in 2004 was too high, welcomed the news. One part per billion translates into a drop of water in an Olympic-size swimming pool.
“We’re happy, but really how happy we will remain depends on what number they end up with and how long it takes them to get there,” said Renee Sharp, director of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group’s California office.
When setting a public health goal, regulators only take into consideration a substance’s effect on health. The state Department of Public Health sets the final standard after also considering cost and technical feasibility.
Read more from the Inland Daily Bulletin by clicking here.
State reviewing standard for perchlorate in the Inland Empire
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 28, 2008 at 7:18 amFrom the Contra Costa Times:
State regulators have begun reviewing a drinking-water standard for a common inland contaminant. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment will review the public health goal for perchlorate - an ingredient in explosives and some fertilizers - in 2009, said the office’s deputy director for external and legislative affairs, said Sam Delson via e-mail.
The public health goal is the first step in setting a drinking-water standard.
Environmentalists, who complained the last public health goal of 6 parts per billion set in 2004 was too high, welcomed the news. One part per billion translates into a drop of water in an Olympic-size swimming pool. “We’re happy but really how happy we will remain depends on what number they end up with and how long it takes them to get there,” said Renee Sharp, director of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group’s California office.
When setting a public health goal, regulators only take into consideration a substance’s effect on health. The state’s Department of Public Health sets the final standard after also considering cost and technical feasibility.
Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.
Is perchlorate a neurotoxin? Not everyone thinks so. Here’s a comment by reader Wayne Lusvardi on a recent perchlorate story (emphasis is his, not mine):
Perchlorate is NOT a neurotoxin (acts specifically on nerve cells), a carcinogen, or a poison; it is an endocrine disrupter which is alleged to block the absorption of iodine, a crucial nutritional element in the development of the unborn and young infants. THIS IS NOTHING BUT PROPAGANDA. Long ago we added iodine to table salt to solve thE problem potential posed by perchlorate. Please read: “News Coverage of Perchlorate Issue is Thirty Miles Wide, One Inch Deep” posted at the website of the San Diego County Water Authority here: http://www.sdcwa.org/clips/2005/05may/050505/05050510news.html
Boeing ordered to remove tainted soil; Stormwater is carrying away contaminants at former test site
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 19, 2008 at 5:49 amFrom the Ventura County Star:
Boeing Co., the owner of a former rocket engine and nuclear test site south of Simi Valley, has been ordered to remove contaminated soil to keep pollutants found in storm water from running off the site.
Heavy metals, perchlorate and other toxic materials have been found in stormwater running off the Santa Susana Field Laboratory at two outfalls that drain into Dayton Canyon Creek and the Arroyo Simi.
The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board issued the order on Dec. 3. Stormwater traversing the field lab has contained pollutants that exceed limits set in a permit previously issued by the board.
In 2007, Boeing was fined for exceeding limits of chromium, dioxin, lead, mercury and other pollutants in wastewater and stormwater runoff over a period of nearly 18 months.
“It’s a new approach but is not a radical change from what we have been doing,” board spokesman Stephen Cain said.
Read more from the Ventura County Star by clicking here.
States don’t back USEPA perchlorate proposal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 14, 2008 at 8:10 amFrom American Water Works Association’s Water Weekly:
State regulators’ comments generally oppose the USEPA’s proposed preliminary regulatory determination to not regulate perchlorate. New Jersey said it will be finalizing an MCL for perchlorate in 2009. However, the USEPA’s own National Drinking Water Advisory Council threaded its way through the issue more carefully.
Meanwhile, an internal document obtained by news media indicates the agency intends to finalize the decision to issue a health advisory, instead of an MCL, for the chemical by mid-December ― before the Obama administration takes office. However, that document predated the 15-day extension of comments on the agency’s preliminary decision. Comments on EPA-HQ-OW-2008-0692 closed Nov. 28 and are still being posted online.
The NDWAC was one of those taking advantage of the extension, with comments posted Dec. 11. Chairman Gregg Grunenfelder wrote, “While NDWAC members do not have a consensus position to relay on the perchlorate decision itself, the members fully support the need for a strong, scientifically valid basis upon which to make such decisions.”
On Nov. 5, a comment co-signed by USEPA Science Advisory Board Chair Deborah Swackhamer and SAB Drinking Water Committee Chair Joan Rose noted USEPA’s intent to issue a final regulatory determination by December 2008 and reminded USEPA that the DWC’s draft report on Contaminant Candidate List 3 had recommended perchlorate should be a high priority for [regulatory] consideration” by the agency.
Read more from Water Weekly by clicking here.
Bankrupt company ordered to investigate its role in drinking-water contamination
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 7, 2008 at 7:23 amFrom the San Bernardino Sun:
The state water agency charged with cleaning up the extensive water contamination here has ordered a bankrupt fireworks company to start investigating its role in the mess.
On Wednesday, Gerard Thibeault, executive officer of the Riverside-based Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, sent a letter to Harry Hescox, former president of Pyrotronics Corp., ordering him to investigate contamination in the city.
“Evidence shows that large amounts of perchlorate were used and disposed of by Pyrotronics in its large-scale fireworks manufacturing operations that took place for approximately two decades,” the letter reads.
Perchlorate interferes with the thyroid gland, which affects metabolism, and mental and physical development. The chemical, used in explosives, is flowing through Rialto toward Colton.
The regional board has issued similar orders to about 20 parties since 2002, said Kurt Berchtold, assistant executive officer, but this order comes more than a year after the board’s staff tried to prosecute three suspected polluters in state hearings. The hearings still have not been held. The three companies were Black & Decker, Goodrich and Pyro Spectaculars, which is based in Rialto.
“The reason for issuing the order to Pyrotronics now is because although they’re a defunct corporation, they do have insurance coverage that we believe may allow additional work to be done on the site,” Berchtold said.
Read more from the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
Feds set to eliminate water regulations for the neurotoxin perchlorate
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 4, 2008 at 8:08 am
From Wired Science:
Among the Bush administration’s final environmental legacies will be a decision to exempt perchlorate, a known neurotoxin found at unsafe levels in the drinking water of millions of Americans, from federal regulation.
The ruling, proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in October, was supposed to be formalized on Monday. That deadline passed, but the agency expects to announce its decision by the year’s end, before president-elect Barack Obama takes office. It could take years to reverse.
Critics accuse the EPA of ignoring expert advice and basing their decision on an abstract model of perchlorate exposure, rather than existing human data.
“We know that breast milk is widely contaminated with perchlorate, and we know that young children are especially vulnerable. We have really good human data. So why are they putting a model front-and-center?” said Anila Jacobs at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. “And they used a model that hasn’t yet gone through the peer-review process.”
The ruling is one of dozens planned for the final days of the Bush administration. Others include a relaxing of air pollution standards for aging power plants, and a reduction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s traditional role in evaluating the impact of federal projects on endangered species.
Read more from Wired Science by clicking here.
Defunct fireworks company ordered to pay for Rialto perchlorate testing
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 4, 2008 at 7:27 amFrom Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:
Water quality officials on Wednesday ordered a fireworks producer to pay for testing of groundwater on a 160-acre industrial site in Rialto where drinking-water wells have been contaminated with perchlorate.
The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a letter to the now-defunct Pyrotronics Corp. and its former president, Harry Hescox, to investigate perchlorate levels in ground water near a 12,000-gallon concrete pond where the company dumped the contaminant while making Silver Sunrise, King Kong and other fireworks. Perchlorate is used in fireworks, munitions, rocket fuel and other explosives, and has been found to affect the thyroid gland in high doses.
“There’s been some monitoring right around the pit. We need some further monitoring downstream to figure out how far things have migrated,” said Kurt Berchtold, the regional board’s assistant executive director.
Hescox’s attorney, David Isola, said he had not seen a copy of the order and declined to comment.
The industrial area where Pyrotronics and other companies operated is believed to be the source of the Inland region’s largest uncontrolled plume of perchlorate in a drinking-water supply. The contamination has tainted more than a dozen drinking-water wells that serve Rialto and Colton; some have been closed and treatment systems have been installed on others. The plume stretches seven miles and appears to be headed toward three wells owned by the city of Riverside.
Read the rest of this story from the Press-Enterprise by clicking here.
Whitaker-Bermite facility: The perchlorate cleanup plan is a reality, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 1, 2008 at 1:18 pmFrom Aquafornia’s hometown newspaper, the Santa Clarita Signal, this commentary by William Pesci, president of the Castaic Lake Water Agency Board of Directors:
Once upon a time, there was a factory where they made things that explode. It was on a 996-acre piece of property in the center of our valley, and people who lived here became accustomed to the sounds of explosions as factory workers tested their wares - military flares, fireworks, munitions and the like.
The Bermite munitions manufacturing plant - later to be known as Whittaker-Bermite - was a key player in the Santa Clarita Valley’s job market, and was also a cog in our nation’s military-industrial complex.
Local residents didn’t think much about it at the time, but making and testing things that explode can be a rather messy business.
We have good news: More than two decades after the last explosion at the Whittaker-Bermite site, we here at the Castaic Lake Water Agency are nearing completion on a much-anticipated water treatment project that will, once and for all, resolve the messy legacy left behind by Whittaker-Bermite.
And, it’s not a fairy tale. The cleanup is, at last, a reality.
Read more of this commentary from the Santa Clarita Signal by clicking here.
Goodrich suit claims EPA hiding perchlorate data
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 30, 2008 at 7:20 amFrom the Contra Costa Times:
One of the companies accused of polluting the drinking water in the Rialto area has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency saying the agency is withholding evidence that supports the company’s case.
Charlotte-based Goodrich Corp. says in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that EPA has modelling showing the company is not responsible for the contamination.
The EPA is in the process of declaring a 160-acre portion of Rialto a Superfund site because various chemicals, including perchlorate, are flowing through the city and toward Colton and Riverside.
Perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel and fireworks, can adversely affect the human thyroid.
“We believe that EPA has models that exonerate the company,” said Goodrich spokesman Patrick Palmer. “And if they have such models, they shouldn’t hide them.”
Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.
Editorial: EPA’s decision not to regulate perchlorate based on skimpy science?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 18, 2008 at 1:30 pmFrom the Riverside Press-Enterprise, this editorial:
Federal regulators should use sound science as the basis for determining the risk from chemicals in the water supply. So when the EPA’s scientific advisers question the agency’s rationale for ignoring perchlorate pollution, regulators need to revise their decision.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced last month that it would not set a safety standard for perchlorate in drinking water. A new regulation offered no “meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction,” the agency said. But this month, the EPA’s Science Advisory Board urged the agency to postpone making that preliminary decision final.
Perchlorate, a chemical used in rocket fuel and explosives, can impair thyroid function, and affect brain and nerve development in infants. Perchlorate shows up in 153 drinking water systems nationally. Rialto, Fontana, Redlands, Highland, Corona and northwest Riverside County all have the chemical in water supplies.
Read more of this editorial from the Press-Enterprise by clicking here.
EPA advisers seek perchlorate review; Scientists hope agency rethinks decision not to issue standard
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 15, 2008 at 7:10 amFrom the Washington Post:
The Environmental Protection Agency’s scientific advisers have warned the agency that it should delay final action on its decision not to set a federal drinking-water standard for perchlorate, a chemical in rocket fuel, because the computer model underlying the decision may have flaws.
In a letter last week, the heads of EPA’s Science Advisory Board and its drinking water committee urged EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson to extend the public comment period on its preliminary determination to not regulate perchlorate. That decision is set to become final next month.
Perchlorate, which is present in the water systems of 35 states, accumulates in the body from consuming water, milk, lettuce and other common products and has been linked in scientific studies to thyroid problems in pregnant women, newborns and infants.
“Given perchlorate’s wide occurrence and well-documented toxicity to humans, the [Science Advisory Board] strongly believes that there must be a compelling scientific basis to support a scientific determination not to regulate perchlorate as a national drinking water contaminant,” Advisory Board Chairwoman Deborah L. Swackhamer and Joan B. Rose, chairwoman of the board’s drinking water committee, wrote Nov. 5.
Read more from the Washington Post by clicking here.
EPA seeks comment on preliminary perchlorate drinking water decision - agency plans to issue a perchlorate health advisory
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 5, 2008 at 5:59 amThanks to Cookie Jill for sending me this! From the Environmental Protection Agency:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted extensive review of scientific data related to the health effects of exposure to perchlorate from drinking water and other sources and found that in more than 99 percent of public drinking water systems, perchlorate was not at levels of public health concern. Therefore, based on the Safe Water Drinking Act criteria, the agency determined there is not a “meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction” through a national drinking water regulation.
The agency is seeking comment on its preliminary determination not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water at a national level. EPA will make a final determination for perchlorate after considering information provided in the 30-day public comment period.
While fewer than one percent of the drinking water sources have perchlorate levels above the health reference level, EPA is committed to working with states and localities to ensure public health is protected. States have the right to establish and enforce drinking water standards and EPA encourages state-specific situations to be addressed at the local level. EPA intends to issue a health advisory at the time it issues its final regulatory determination for perchlorate, to assist states with their local response.
A regulatory determination is a formal decision by EPA as to whether it should initiate development of a national primary drinking water regulation for a specific contaminant under the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA has drinking water regulations for more than 90 contaminants. Every five years, EPA develops a Contaminant Candidate List of contaminants to consider for regulation and then makes regulatory determinations on some of the contaminants based on scientific information on health effects, occurrence in drinking water and the opportunity for risk reduction.
A health advisory provides technical guidance to federal, state, and other public health officials on health effects, analytical methods and treatment technologies associated with drinking water contamination. Health advisories also contain guidance values that are concentrations of a contaminant in drinking water that are likely to be without adverse health effects.
Find out more information by clicking here.
EPA drops ball again, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 24, 2008 at 6:02 amFrom the Contra Costa Times, this editorial:
THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY has, once again, played ball with the White House while threatening public health. The latest case is about perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel that has been linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women, newborns and young children nationwide. The toxic component, also contained in fireworks, is showing up much too often in water supplies.
Yet while the ingredient has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states at levels high enough to pose health risks, the EPA, according to a report in the Washington Post, caved in to pressure from the Bush administration and the Pentagon, a la emission standards, and decided there’s no need to eliminate perchlorate from drinking water.
The EPA’s conclusion in a draft claims the clean-up level for perchlorate would not result in a “meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public water systems.”
What the report doesn’t say is this avoids potentially costing the government billions of dollars in cleanup costs and it keeps the Defense Department away from nasty lawsuits with upset contractors. Who wants to go through all of that trouble just for the sake of public health concerns?
Read the rest of this editorial from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.
EPA decides not to limit perchlorate in tap water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 23, 2008 at 7:47 amFrom the Associated Press:
The Environmental Protection Agency has decided there’s no need to rid drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that has fouled public water supplies around the country. EPA reached the conclusion in a draft regulatory document not yet made public but reviewed Monday by The Associated Press.
The ingredient, perchlorate, has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states at levels high enough to interfere with thyroid function and pose developmental health risks, particularly for babies and fetuses, according to some scientists.
The EPA document says that mandating a clean-up level for perchlorate would not result in a “meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems.”
The conclusion, which caps years of dispute over the issue, was denounced by Democrats and environmentalists who accused EPA of caving to pressure from the Pentagon. “This is a widespread contamination problem, and to see the Bush EPA just walk away is shocking,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate’s environment committee.
More from the Associated Press by clicking here.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Some perchlorate occurs naturally, but most perchlorate contamination in U.S. drinking water stems from improper disposal by rocket test sites, military bases and chemical plants. A nationwide cleanup could cost hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars, and several defense contractors have threatened to sue the Defense Department to help pay for it if one is required.
The new EPA proposal - which assumes the maximum allowable perchlorate contamination level is 15 times above what the EPA suggested in 2002 - was heavily edited by officials of the White House Office of Management and Budget, who eliminated key scientific passages and asked the EPA to use a new computer modeling approach to calculate the chemical’s risks.
“They have distorted the science to such an extent that they can justify not regulating” the chemical, said University of Massachusetts Professor Robert Zoeller, an endocrinologist who specializes in thyroid hormone and brain development, and who has a copy of the EPA proposal. “Infants and children will continue to be damaged, and that damage is significant.”
Read the rest of this article in the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
Lake Mead cleanup of perchlorate proves successful
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 8, 2008 at 12:26 pmFrom Red Orbit:
While environmental officials in other states have been bickering over who is responsible for cleaning up contamination from the rocket fuel ingredient, perchlorate, and to what level, water quality officials in Nevada have blazed a trail to follow.
J.C. Davis, a spokesman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, credits the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection with spearheading the cleanup effort that has dramatically reduced levels of it in Lake Mead since it was first discovered there a decade ago.
He said the turning point came when hydrologists were able pinpoint locations where the contamination was entering Las Vegas Wash, which empties into Lake Mead, Southern Nevada’s primary drinking water source. “The key is you take it out before it gets into the lake,” Davis said Tuesday.
The tainted groundwater is intercepted, perchlorate is extracted and clean water is then released to continue its course to the lake.
“The people who were actually manufacturing perchlorate stepped up without any compulsory requirements and did the cleanup,” he said, recalling how water officials and former rocket fuel manufacturers around Henderson huddled with Nevada environmental officials in the late 1990s to plot a course of action. “Everybody said, ‘What’s the object?’ The goal is to protect drinking water customers instead of about arguing whether or not it was regulated or to what level of cleanup,” Davis said.
Read the rest of this article from Red Orbit by clicking here.
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 amPerchlorate 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.
Read the rest of this article from the Signal by clicking here.
EPA might not act to limit rocket fuel in drinking water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 7, 2008 at 5:58 amFrom 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.
Read the full text of this article from the Associated Press by clicking here.
Rialto City Council votes to seek Superfund listing
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 5, 2007 at 12:24 pmFrom the Daily Bulletin:
The [Rialto] City Council has unanimously endorsed a move to petition the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to list a 160-acre industrial tract in the city’s northern fringe as a Superfund site. “It has become very apparent that we need to seek all the help and assistance that we can,” said Councilman Ed Scott, immediately prior to the 5-0 vote Tuesday evening.
Even an EPA official who attended the meeting seemed to offer a premature vote of support to the city’s efforts to attain the vaunted Superfund listing. “I think we, like others, started to become concerned last year when the state’s process began to get bogged down,” said Wayne Praskins, Superfund project manager with the EPA. The packed Council Chambers burst into applause following the vote.
Superfund is the federal government’s hazardous waste cleanup program. A chunk of the city’s northern edge during World War II was a military storage facility and continues to be used as an industrial site. The chief contaminant, perchlorate, was discovered in 1997 in Rialto.
To read the rest of this article from the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, click here.
Talks to begin on perchlorate plume in the Inland Empire
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 27, 2007 at 2:01 pmFrom Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:
Settlement talks have started in the Inland region’s largest unabated groundwater pollution case, officials said Monday. Three companies accused of contributing to perchlorate pollution over the past 55 years in Rialto and Colton have agreed to hold confidential talks for the next 60 days with officials of the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Riverside-based regulator.
Since 2002, the board has been trying to find those responsible for perchlorate pollution in order to prompt a cleanup of the 6-mile-long plume that has tainted more than a dozen drinking wells that serve the two cities.
Kurt Berchtold, the board’s assistant executive officer, said confidentiality is typical. “That is standard in any settlement process, for the purposes of encouraging a free discussion,” he said.
To read the rest of this story from Riverside’s Press-Enterprise, click here.
Rialto declares state of emergency in hopes of receiving funding for perchlorate cleanup
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 24, 2007 at 7:58 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
Rialto city officials have declared a state of emergency, citing concerns about a shrinking water supply in danger of further contamination by dangerous chemicals. The City Council voted on the declaration Tuesday in an attempt to secure state funding to halt the spread of industrial perchlorate in city groundwater. The growing, six-mile-long chemical plume in the north end of the San Bernardino County city contaminates 360 million gallons of groundwater each month.
“It’s time now that somebody heard us and helped us,” said Mayor Grace Vargas. “We need to protect our citizens.”
The declaration criticizes state and local regulatory agencies for failing to aggressively enforce cleanup efforts, and warns that Rialto would be “extremely vulnerable” in the event of a “catastrophic interruption” of its clean water supply.
Although the city says its safeguards prevent residents from drinking polluted water, the plume grows about 20 inches a day and poses a growing threat to nearby communities such as Colton, officials said.
To read the full text of this article from the Los Angeles Times, click here.
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