Rocket Fuel Peril Studied

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Kim McGuire
Published August 11, 2001

EAST CAMDEN -- Rocket fuel is fanning out beneath the ground at Highland Industrial Park, forming a plume of contamination that is among the highest in concentration in the United States.

The plume, measuring more than a mile in diameter, is primarily perchlorate, the explosive main ingredient of rocket fuel that some scientists believe inhibits thyroid production and is suspected of causing developmental problems in infants.

The bulk of the contamination is on property leased by Atlantic Research Corp., a Defense Department contractor that manufactures rocket propellant and employs about 500 people at its East Camden plant.

The Arkansas Department of Health has not detected perchlorate in any public water system near Highland Park, a 17,000-acre complex of commercial and Defense Department contractors that make and test weapons.

New research by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suggests that the plume is growing, though, and has spread beyond Highland's property line.

More than 5,000 people get their water from wells within a four-mile radius of the northern edge of the plume, which covers more than 300 acres. While most of those people use public well systems, there are several private wells in the area, many of which have not been tested.

Atlantic has no plan in place to contain or clean the contamination, which would likely cost millions of dollars. The company is studying the plume at the behest of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and plans to report its findings by Nov. 1.

Company officials, however, acknowledge that a cleanup of some kind is likely.

"We know we'll have to do something at some point," said Dianne Anderson, human resource director at the East Camden plant.

The core of the plume consists of perchlorate levels at 100 parts per million in the ground water. That's about 3,000 times the level the EPA believes may pose minimal health risks when consumed daily. "Those are very, very high levels for the water and soil," said Bill Walker, the California Director of the Environmental Working Group, a research organization that recently released a report calling for the EPA to set and enforce health-based safety standards for perchlorate in drinking water.

"For comparison, the highest level of perchlorate the state of California -- which has done the most testing -- has found in any water supplies or ground water is 280 parts per billion in a couple of [now-closed] wells in Sacramento County," Walker said.

While the state is not yet ordering Atlantic to clean up the contamination, Highland Park officials are toeing a tougher line. They've insisted that the company clean up the contamination to the level EPA recommends.

"We've had some very frank discussions with Atlantic Research regarding AP [ammonium perchlorate] and how to address it, and I believe they will," said state Rep. Sam Ledbetter, D-Little Rock, attorney for Highland Park.

Perchlorate does not degrade easily and is incredibly soluble, spreading very quickly when it hits surface water. In California, one cleanup is estimated to cost $111 million in current dollars though it will take at least 200 years to restore the contaminated aquifer.

In the past few years, some studies have found that perchlorate consumed in low levels on a daily basis can impair production of the thyroid, which controls growth and development.

Those studies have driven concern about perchlorate in drinking water.

The EPA currently does not regulate perchlorate in drinking water, but has begun the process to include it on the list of contaminants it normally checks in public systems.

It wasn't until 1997 that analytical methods were developed to detect low levels of perchlorate. Since then, perchlorate contamination has been found just about everywhere rockets were ever made or tested.

Western woes

In the early 1990s, Larry Ladd's children's baby sitter discovered that she had hundreds of tumors in her connective tissue. She wasn't the first in his neighborhood to get sick. Ladd, a Rancho Cordova, Calif., geographer, began to suspect that something harmful was in the water.

Years later, California health officials did discover something in the Rancho Cordova water system that wasn't supposed to be there -- perchlorate.

For years, an Aerojet facility about seven miles from Rancho Cordova flushed perchlorate out of rocket motor casings. The perchlorate seeped through a catacomb of old gold mine shafts, ending up in the Sacramento suburb's water supply.

Hundreds of people claimed it made them sick.

"By and large, state regulators didn't want to deal with it at first," said Ladd, who now lobbies nationwide to increase awareness about perchlorate. "They realized quickly that if it's a problem, then it's a big problem."

As of June 1, perchlorate has been detected in 58 public water systems in California, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group, which performs scientific research for public interest groups and concerned citizens campaigning to protect the environment.

"We know the water supplies of millions of Californians are contaminated with perchlorate at potentially harmful levels," Walker said. "But that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of untested wells and water systems across the country, and many Americans may be consuming a toxin which is a health threat at very low doses, especially to infants and children."

Kevin Mayer, who tracks perchlorate contamination for the EPA, said, "It's definitely a nationwide problem. Certainly it is in our region in terms of number of people exposed -- it's extremely large."

"In my guestimation, because of the arid conditions, the immediate drain on water supply, and the very large amount of people, we may have the most serious problem here."

Rocket science

Large-scale production of perchlorate -- pronounced per-KLOR-ate -- began in the 1940s and increased over the years along with post-war military efforts. American Pacific Corp. of Las Vegas and Kerr-McGee Corp. of Oklahoma City have historically have been the two major producers of perchlorate.

Most of that production occurred at two plants near Las Vegas. In 1988, a series of explosions destroyed an American Pacific plant, leaving two people dead, more than 300 injured and a large crater in the desert.

The vast majority of perchlorate manufactured in the United States goes to the U.S. Air Force, NASA and Department of Defense contractors to make rocket fuel.

Since perchlorate tends to lose some of its reactivity over time, it has to be frequently flushed out of rocket motors and replaced with fresh fuel.

Runoff water seeps into the ground, causing most of the ground-water and soil contamination.

For years, many facilities used high-powered water jets to flush perchlorate out of rocket casings.

Others, like Atlantic Research Corp., burned it.

Contamination in Calhoun County

Atlantic, which has company headquarters in Virginia, manufactures rocket and missile motors, rocket motor propellant, warheads and propellant for air bags. It has leased property at Highland Park in Calhoun County since 1979.

Documents on file with the state Department of Environmental Quality suggest that Atlantic Research knew of widespread perchlorate contamination on its property since at least 1993.

State environmental regulators suspect contamination is a result of years' of burning large amounts of propellant on-site -- which the company is legally permitted by the state to do. Though burning the substance does not contaminate the air, the solid remnants still sink into the ground.

According to the company's permit on file with the state, Atlantic can burn 1,850 pounds of propellant a day. Most of the propellant mixtures are a combination of ammonium perchlorate and aluminum powder.

Environmental regulators also suspect ammonium perchlorate contaminated the soil and ground water at an Atlantic building where propellant was washed out of rocket motor casings. Atlantic reports state that practice stopped by 1983.

At the plume's epicenter, perchlorate can be found in the soil at 2,000 parts per million, state Department of Environmental Quality officials say. Ground water near the open burning/open detonation pits measures an average of 100 parts per million of perchlorate.

By using computer modeling, Atlantic has mapped the plume from its point of origin to a level of 18 parts per billion, which is EPA's current provisional standard.

Shannon Miller, a Department of Environmental Quality project engineer, said that the plume likely extends beyond the measured 18 parts per billion boundary, but no one is certain.

Atlantic officials referred all questions about the contamination's extent to Anderson, the human resource director, who was unable to answer many specific questions. An attorney for the company did not return a phone call despite Highland Park's request that he discuss the issue with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Research by the Corps of Engineers indicates the plume has extended north beyond Highland Industrial Park property boundaries onto adjacent timberland. The Corps is studying the site because it is part of the former Shumaker Naval Ammunition Depot.

Similarly, the EPA is investigating the former naval depot site and maintains that there is an imminent and substantial danger to human health and the environment associated with it. A document outlining the agency's investigation mentions perchlorate contamination as one of the driving factors.

Current soil and ground-water sampling done by Environmental Alliance, the environmental consultants hired by Atlantic to study the plume, shows that perchlorate-tainted ground water extends 40 feet below the surface in parts of the plume.

Anderson said the company won't come up with a plan to contain the plume until completion of the study, which will be submitted to the state by Nov. 1.

"We'll use all the data we're collecting now and develop a method to remediate what's there," she said.

Anderson, like Ledbetter, said the geology of the site would prevent the plume from spreading much farther or deeper. A natural clay formation above the deep ground-water aquifer should prevent the perchlorate from seeping down much farther, she explained.

Harold Siefert, chief of the Health Department's engineering division, said he thought a major drainage ditch between the plume and the public water systems would also help protect local water supplies.

The Health Department doesn't plan to do anything beyond routine checking of public systems.

"Until we start seeing some problems that seem severe and threatening, we would not take any action beyond what EPA does."

Health effects debate

While the Arkansas Department of Health is taking a "wait and see" approach to perchlorate, other states have adopted their own perchlorate action levels -- the point at which the state advises a water source be closely monitored.

In California the action level is 18 parts per billion and the state recommends shutting down wells that contain more than 40 parts per billion. Nevada also has adopted similar levels.

Those action levels were prompted by medical research indicating that perchlorate affects the thyroid gland, which controls growth, development and metabolism. Until recently, perchlorate was used to treat Graves disease, a form of hyperthyroidism.

For years, scientists have known that perchlorate, which replaces iodide in the thyroid, could harm the gland if large amounts are consumed.

Little was known, however, about the effects caused by small amounts consumed over a long period until last year when an Arizona Department of Health study found a significant increase in abnormal levels of a thyroid hormone in infants whose mothers drank perchlorate-tainted water while pregnant.

Infants in Yuma, Ariz., where perchlorate had been found in the water, were compared to infants in Flagstaff, Ariz, which has no detectable levels of the chemical.

Yuma's water had perchlorate concentrations that were five times lower than EPA's provisional standard. The infants born there had significantly higher amounts of a thyroid stimulating hormone.

Researchers concluded that drinking even low levels of perchlorate-contaminated water may be associated with adverse health affects in infants and say the finding highlights the need for further study.

While the EPA has not delivered its final word on possible health effects associated with perchlorate, in 1998 it set 32 parts per billion as a level at which daily consumption may pose minimal to risk to humans.

That number, like its provisional standard of 18 parts per billion, is being reviewed and is subject to change.

"That's just a number, you need to forget it," Mayer said. "If there is some regulated number -- whether it is a drinking water standard, or public health goal -- it's understandable to report up to that standard and not below it. Eighteen is just a number EPA came up with, but it's still just a number and we need a much better one."

Military and industry groups have lobbied EPA to make its reference dose less stringent, arguing that there's not a lot of information available to make conclusion about health effects of perchlorate.

Cleanup costs and future regulation

Atlantic recently installed several ground-water monitoring wells on the property that should give company officers an indication of how far the contamination has spread.

It's not clear how much those wells cost the company, or what the inevitable cleanup's price tag may tally.

If cleanups in the West are any indication of cost, however, Atlantic may end up paying millions of dollars to remove perchlorate from Highland property.

Cleaning up part of the mess at Rancho Cordova is expected to cost $111 million in current dollars and take about 240 years. Charles Berry, the EPA's project manager for the site, explained that in order to remove the perchlorate, Sacramento County's aquifer will have to be flushed out six times over the cleanup's duration.

Cleanups at two Lockheed Martin sites in California are estimated to set the company back almost $250 million. Public water supplies were contaminated at all three sites.

With each of the cleanups, defense contractors have been able to use the proceeds of future contracts to cover the costs of remediation and legal costs.

According to the Environmental Working Group's report, "Rocket Science," Aerojets Securities Exchange Commission filings indicate that the company is liable for $353 million for cleanup at all sites, but will recover $213 million from the government to help cover the cleanup.

EPA Region 9 officials confirmed that the public's share of the cleanup costs at the Rancho Cordova site is about 88 percent.

Most Rancho Cordova residents don't mind that public dollars are being used to clean up the contamination because they think that's the only way the monumental job will ever get done.

"People whose water supply is compromised by the contamination have no problem with it," Ladd said. "It's the people whose supplies are clean that are raising a stink. They don't want their tax dollars being spent on a problem that doesn't affect them."

While perchlorate contamination is proving costly and laborious, two treatment technologies seem to work, EPA officials say.

One is a biological treatment in which micro-organisms are injected into the contamination. The organism breathes nitrates into perchlorate and changes it into a stable chloride.

The other is an ion exchange. With it, a resin absorbs the perchlorate, enabling the contamination to be separated from water and soil.

"These things work and work really reliably well to get perchlorate down to a barely detectable levels," Mayer said.

State officials say it's too early to tell what kind of cleanup plan Atlantic might submit, and Atlantic's Anderson offered no illumination.

By the end of next month, the company will submit a plan to close the burn units that are suspected sources of contamination.

Miller said the company will have to address a cleanup near the open burn units in the closure plan, which must be approved by the state before it will issue Atlantic a new operating permit.

He said it's unlikely the company will address the entire plume in the closure plan, but the company will have to take a broader look at the site as one of the contingencies of the permit's renewal.