Utah to begin perchlorate sampling after tainted milk discovered

Environmental Laboratory Washington Report, Staff
Published February 9, 2006

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food will begin testing groundwater for perchlorate this spring after the chemical was found in a handful of milk samples in the state more than a year ago. According to the agency, perchlorate testing will be done in about 450 water sources in Utah (Summit, Wasatch, Carbon, Emery, Grand and San Juan counties) as part of the state's annual May through October groundwater sampling. About half of the samples will be taken from drinking water wells, one quarter will be taken from irrigation wells, 15 percent will come from springs, and 10 percent from wells used for livestock, the agency said. In December 2004, the UDAF tested for perchlorate in samples taken from milk sold in Utah grocery stores. The testing was done, in part, because recent studies conducted by the Environmental Working Group found the chemical in 31 of 32 milk samples taken throughout California. Those tests found perchlorate at levels above the state's recommended health standard in about half the samples. The EPA has not yet established a drinking water standard for perchlorate, but it has published a reference dose of 24.5 ppb that the agency has concluded is safe. The 2004 milk samples - which were analyzed by Data Chem of Salt Lake City - showed perchlorate at levels well below the EPA's reference dose, ranging from 2.95 parts per billion to 6.22 ppb, the UDAF said. According to the agency, these results were generally lower than tests conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of milk samples collected from several other states, including Maryland, California, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Arizona. While Utah does not have a formal program for testing milk for perchlorate, the state will evaluate the feasibility and necessity of such a program based upon the results of the upcoming sampling for perchlorate in drinking water, the UDAF said.