Water Education Foundation

Whitaker-Bermite facility: The perchlorate cleanup plan is a reality, says commentary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 1, 2008 at 1:18 pm

From 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.

December 1, 2008 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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Goodrich suit claims EPA hiding perchlorate data

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 30, 2008 at 7:20 am

From 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.

November 30, 2008 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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Editorial: EPA’s decision not to regulate perchlorate based on skimpy science?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 18, 2008 at 1:30 pm

From 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.

November 18, 2008 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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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 am

From 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.

November 15, 2008 · Filed Under Drinking Water, Perchlorate

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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 am

Thanks 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.

October 5, 2008 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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EPA drops ball again, says editorial

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 24, 2008 at 6:02 am

From 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.

September 24, 2008 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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EPA decides not to limit perchlorate in tap water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 23, 2008 at 7:47 am

From 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.

September 23, 2008 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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Lake Mead cleanup of perchlorate proves successful

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 8, 2008 at 12:26 pm

From 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.

May 8, 2008 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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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.

Read the rest of this article from the Signal by clicking here.

May 8, 2008 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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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.

Read the full text of this article from the Associated Press by clicking here.

May 7, 2008 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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Rialto City Council votes to seek Superfund listing

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 5, 2007 at 12:24 pm

From 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.

December 5, 2007 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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Talks to begin on perchlorate plume in the Inland Empire

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 27, 2007 at 2:01 pm

From 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.

November 27, 2007 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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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 am

From 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.

November 24, 2007 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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California to begin regulating perchlorate in drinking water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 6, 2007 at 10:04 pm

From the San Bernardino Sun:

This month, for the first time, the state will begin regulating the amount of the toxin perchlorate in drinking water. As of Oct. 18, California will require that water contain no more than six parts per billion of the rocket-fuel additive, putting regulatory force behind what had been just a suggested limit for the past five years. That amount is about the same as a tablespoon of ink in an Olympic-size pool. The change, lauded by some environmentalists, will make California only the second state, behind Massachusetts, to regulate the chemical in drinking water.

But there are also concerns that even the seemingly minuscule amount set by the new limit is still too high. Perchlorate has been shown to block the release of thyroid gland hormones critical for normal growth and nervous system development, making it particularly dangerous for pregnant women and young children. “We believe there is really no safe level of rocket fuel in our drinking water,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro of the advocacy group Environment California. “We are disappointed.”

The Association for California Water Agencies, however, supports the new standard. It notes that the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has declared that the six-parts-per-billion limit would cause no ill effects even after 70 years of water consumption.

“Six parts per billion has been a good, health-effective, cost-effective number,” said Krista Clark, the association’s director of regulatory affairs. “There’s no justifiable reason to have a standard lower than that. To treat lower than that would be to spend public tax dollars on a standard that provides zero net health benefits.”

However, the chemical’s health impacts remain under debate.

For the full text of this article from the San Bernardino Sun, click here.

October 6, 2007 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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Environmentalists take issue with proposed state standard for perchlorate

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 30, 2007 at 1:37 pm

From the Ontario Daily Bulletin:

The state is in the final stages of setting a standard dictating how much perchlorate can be in your drinking water. The cap on the amount of the widespread contaminant that can be in the drinking water could be in place within weeks. But the proposal of 6 parts per billion is not one that will sit well with the environmental community. It could also lead to hikes in water rates, as water purveyors are forced to begin cleaning perchlorate from the water they serve.

“We’re disappointed that in light of all the accumulating evidence that perchlorate is harmful at levels well below this that California decided to stick with 6 ppb,” said Bill Walker, vice president for the Environmental Working Group’s West Coast office.

The Center for Disease Control recently released a report that determined that even low levels of perchlorate can affect hormone levels in women, and can also affect the functioning of the thyroid gland.

To read the rest of this extensive story on perchlorate from the Ontario Daily Bulletin, click here.

August 30, 2007 · Filed Under Perchlorate

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