News Coverage
Standard, not delays, needed
Perchlorate issue must be resolved
Published May 21, 2003
With all the questions swirling around perchlorate contamination and its effect on public health, you'd think the government would be pushing for timely answers. But, it appears the opposite is true.
Following a recent study that revealed high levels of perchlorate, a toxic rocket-fuel component, in lettuce eaten by Californians, it was reported that the Bush administration had forbade the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from publicly commenting on the issue. Additionally, the administration has delayed any further regulatory action on perchlorate for another six to 18 months, ordered the re-examination of other studies on the chemical substance and offered up a bill that would exempt the military and defense industry from liability for perchlorate cleanup.
Why the delay? The public needs answers and a drinking-water standard -- and now quite possibly a stricter standard for our food supply -- from the federal government sooner, not later. Linked to cancer and thyroid problems in adults and mental retardation and tumors in infants, the highly toxic chemical has been detected in water supplies of 22 states.
In Ventura County, high levels of perchlorate have been discovered in 18 shallow wells scattered throughout Simi Valley and in a well adjacent to the Ahmanson Ranch project. (That contamination is not a threat to the city's drinking water supply, however, because Simi Valley imports its tap water from outside the region.)
Local environmentalists place the source of the perchlorate pollution on Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field laboratory. Rocketdyne denies it. The company also maintains that any perchlorate in the soil or ground water at the lab is being contained on the site by its geological and hydrological conditions.
Meanwhile, the study by the Environmental Working Group in Oakland set off alarms when it found perchlorate in four of 22 samples of lettuce traced to growers in Southern California or Arizona. The level found in the lettuce is believed by the group to be above the EPA's recommended exposure limit. But, since the EPA has not yet developed a final safety standard, it is difficult to say whether the nation's water or food supply is endangered by this contaminant. We need truthful answers and a swift resolution of the perchlorate question, not gag orders and delays.