[CPEO-MEF] Last NAS perchlorate news reports for the week

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Science panel issues report on water pollutant

Staff and Wire Reports
Kansas City Start
January 12, 2005

WASHINGTON - The National Academy of Sciences has released an eagerly
awaited report on perchlorate, one of the most controversial unregulated
toxic pollutants in the country's drinking water and food supplies.

The academy said Monday that people would be safe if exposed to daily
doses 20 times those under consideration by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Depending on how regulators interpret the recommendation, the Defense
Department, its contractors and other federal agencies responsible for
contamination from perchlorate could save hundreds of millions of
dollars in cleanup costs.

In Missouri, the toxin, a component of solid rocket fuel, has turned up
in three environmental monitoring wells at the Lake City Army Ammunition
Plant, officials said Tuesday. No perchlorate has been found in drinking
water supplies.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/10622170.htm



*****************

Toxin in water not so bad?
Feds say rates of perchlorate weren't perilous 

By VANESSA HUGHES
Lowell Sun (MA) 
January 12, 2005

A federal report on the health dangers of perchlorate, a chemical found
last year in drinking water in Tewksbury and Westford, concludes that
humans can safely consume levels about 20 times higher than the limit
the federal Environmental Protection Agency is considering.

But the finding is disputed by environmentalists and is in contrast to
other studies on the toxin.

The report, conducted by a panel of scientists at the National Academy
of Sciences, supports perchlorate standards that are closer to the
Pentagon's recommendations than to stricter guidelines from the EPA and
the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105~4761~2649376,00.html


*********************


Statement of Senator Dianne Feinstein on 
National Research Council?s Report on Perchlorate Ingestion
January 10, 2005

Washington, DC ? The National Research Council of the National Academies
today released a report on the health implications of perchlorate
ingestion. The following is a comment from Senator Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif.): 

"The EPA has said that it could not set a drinking water standard for
perchlorate until it had the results of this new study. It now has the
results. We know that perchlorate contamination is widespread, it is now
in 35 states, and has entered the food chain. I urge the EPA to take
action as soon as possible."  

Last month, Senator Feinstein announced plans to introduce comprehensive
legislation to address perchlorate contamination. The legislation would: 

*	Authorize $200 million to identify and clean up the sources of perchlorate;
*	Provide grants for the research and development of better cleanup
technologies; 
*	Create an Interagency Task Force to coordinate federal activities
regarding water sources nationwide; 
*	Require the Environmental Protection Agency to set a national primary
drinking water standard for perchlorate; and 
*	Make perchlorate-polluting entities responsible for contamination
cleanup efforts. 


Perchlorate is a chemical used in rocket fuel and munitions. It is a
highly soluble salt that can readily permeate through soils. Perchlorate
was widely used by the Defense Department and its contractors in the
1950s and 1960s. 

For the original release, go to
http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/05releases/r-perchlorate2.htm



************

Perchlorate: Out of the Hot Water?
NEWS ANALYSIS: TECHNOLOGY 


By Burt Helm 
Business Week Online 
JANUARY 14, 2005 

The National Academy of Science's safe-dosage recommendation is a
surprise to the EPA -- and may save businesses millions

 After a seven-year debate, the perchlorate matter was finally settled
-- or was it? Perchlorate, a primary ingredient in rocket fuel, has been
found in the water supply of 35 states (see BW Online, 12/15/04, "When
Water Can Be Bad for Kids"). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
and state health agencies have been concerned about the chemical's
health effects, while the Defense Dept. and contractors, who would be
liable for cleaning up water supplies, have claimed that such concern is
overblown. Unable to agree, the two sides turned to the National Academy
of Sciences for help. 

The EPA and state health agencies are mandated to set a "reference dose"
-- a safe level that would protect even the most at-risk human, and
that's what they asked the NAS to recommend, which it now has in a
surprising decision on Jan. 10. 

The NAS committee recommended a safe dosage level 23 times higher than
what the EPA had come up with in its initial risk assessment in 2002 --
even though the NAS committee's broader findings matched many of the
conclusions of the EPA and health departments in California and seven
other states that have completed their own assessments on perchlorate.
The result: The EPA and state health agencies will now reassess their
previous recommendations, and the Defense Dept. -- and its contractors
-- may be off the hook for cleaning up hundreds of contaminated water
systems. 

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2005/tc20050114_7064_tc119.htm

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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