News Coverage
Perchlorate: No need to panic
Published July 4, 2004
The jury's still out on the consequences of ingesting low levels of the main ingredient of rocket fuel, and yet the perchlorate scare has percolated through local households and into the laps of Congress.
The fact that traces of perchlorate were found in milk purchased at grocery stores in the region may have upped the ante.
Researchers found minute amounts of perchlorate in 31 of 32 milk samples purchased at stores in Orange and Los Angeles counties. The contamination is thought to come from dairy farmers' use of alfalfa irrigated by perchlorate-tainted water from the Colorado River. Lettuce and other vegetables also have been contaminated.
"What's clear is that perchlorate is now permeating the food chain,' said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "It's a very serious thing.'
The study, conducted by the Environmental Working Group, is one more reason why rocket fuel in the San Gabriel basin needs to be cleaned up and it needs to be done now. Often, and as the EPA points out in the Valley, rocket fuel contamination in ground water comes from defense contractors. And they've been reticent to accept the blame or ante up.
The Pentagon, after all, is also a likely culprit for perchlorate plumes stretching across California, with former rocket manufacturing sites and military storage areas believed to be the primary source.
And yet a separate U.S. Treasury Department account to help affected cities and water districts clean up the messes faces a tougher struggle, since the Bush administration isn't signing onto it.
Politics aside, the scientific evidence still is lacking on how much of a danger perchlorate actually poses. And so, its discovery in water, lettuce or milk in small amounts realistically should be no cause for alarm.
The researchers from Texas Tech University found perchlorate levels in Southern California milk averaged 1.3 parts per billion. Samples from Northern California averaged 5.8 ppb.
California's public health goal is 6 ppb. But a drinking-water standard has not been set. That's a lapse that needs to be corrected as soon as possible at least to see if all the fuss is warranted.
In the meantime, state and local health officials say it's OK to drink the milk.
Knowing what we do thus far, it's an assessment that appears to make sense.