News Coverage
Pollutant in water goes unregulated
Published July 13, 2001
Nearly 50 years after its discovery in Sacramento County drinking water supplies, a hazardous component of solid rocket fuel has found its way through the taps of an estimated 20 million residents in California, Nevada and Arizona.
Yet regulators say they are years away from establishing an enforceable drinking water standard deemed safe for the chemical, perchlorate.
Although the federal Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a standard, it has come under attack from at least one national environmental group as too lenient.
The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization promoting stricter pollution safeguards, contends in a soon-to-be-released report that the EPA overlooked the higher sensitivity that developing infants and fetuses have to perchlorate contamination.
For full story, please refer to the Sacramento Bee.