Associated Press, Samantha Young
Published October 30, 2006
SACRAMENTO - More than a dozen people demanded Monday that state health officials impose the nation's strictest limits for perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient that is contaminating drinking water supplies throughout the state.
The requests came during a 90-minute public comment session hosted by the state Department of Health Services, which is weighing a proposal to require water providers clean up perchlorate contamination.
"There shouldn't be any rocket fuel in our drinking water," said Jan Misquez, a policy director at the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, a nonprofit organization based in Riverside.
At the heart of the debate is a proposed perchlorate regulation that would require clean up if the chemical is found in water supplies at 6 parts per billion or higher - a much more stringent level than suggested by the federal government but weaker than the 2 parts per billion standard imposed this summer by Massachusetts.
Supporters of a tougher limit said California should allow no more than 1 part per billion.
A component of rocket fuel and pyrotechnics, perchlorate has been detected in milk, vegetables, fruit, grains and drinking water supplies in as many as 40 states. Much of the contamination stems from military bases and aerospace plants.
In California, more than 450 wells and other water sources operated by more than 100 water agencies - primarily in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Sacramento counties - have been contaminated by perchlorate, according to the state health department.
Environmental groups for years have sought state regulation in the absence of a national federal drinking water standard for perchlorate, but those blamed for polluting water supplies have offered their own scientific studies that contend that perchlorate at low levels does not threaten public health.
James Strock of the Council on Water Quality, which is funded by Lockheed Martin, Aerojet and other aerospace companies, said state health officials should factor in economic costs, not just health risks, when setting a final standard for drinking water.
"If the same health benefits can be achieved at lower costs, they should be," said Strock, a former head of the California Environmental Protection Agency under Republican Gov. Pete Wilson.
California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in 2004 issued a public health goal for perchlorate at 6 parts per billion. The Department of Health Services then adopted the goal as its proposed perchlorate drinking water standard this summer.
But in the two and a half years since the public health goal was announced, numerous studies have been released showing perchlorate exposure might threaten thyroid functions in women at lower levels than previously thought.
Renee Sharp, a senior analyst with the Environmental Working Group, said a limit of 6 parts per billion would "profoundly fail" as many as 272,000 women vulnerable to low exposures of perchlorate.
Specifically, Sharp and others urged the department to review a federal study released earlier this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It found that perchlorate might prevent some women's thyroid glands from functioning properly at low levels.
"We believe it would be much wiser for DHS to wait and get the right standard than to move ahead with an inappropriate standard," Sharp said.
However, the department's hands may be tied. State law requires the department to establish a drinking water standard as close to the public health goal as technically and economically feasible, said department spokeswoman Patti Roberts.
"It's important for DHS to continue to move forward in adopting a drinking water standard as soon as possible to assure the public all local water districts are adhering to adopted drinking water standards," Roberts said.
A spokesman for the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which has the ability to lower the public health goal and thus allow the department to adopt a tougher standard than 6 parts per billion, said Monday that officials were reviewing the data released this month by the Centers for Disease Control.
The federal EPA issued its first safety standard for perchlorate last year, following a National Academy of Sciences recommendation that it not exceed 24.5 parts per billion in drinking water. One part per billion amounts to about one drop in an Olympic-size swimming pool.
Public comment on the California perchlorate regulation ends Friday.
This AP story also ran in the following outlets:
The Desert Sun, CA
Monterey County Herald, CA
KFMB, CA
San Diego Union Tribune, United States
KTVU.com, CA
Press-Enterprise (subscription), CA
Fresno Bee (subscription), CA
FoxReno.com, NV
Times Daily (subscription), AL
Contra Costa Times, CA
San Jose Mercury News, USA
San Luis Obispo Tribune, CA
Monterey County Herald, CA
