2007 CPEO Military List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: 16 Mar 2007 19:03:24 -0000
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] Oregon watermelon perchlorate tests
 
[I'm not sure where the reporter got his conclusion. There are no standards for perchlorate in watermelon. EPA's fact sheet points out that the presence of perchlorate in food could drive down the drinking water standard for perchlorate. - LS]


Oregon melons test safe, EPA says
Health - The results lift a shadow that a chemical found in groundwater was tainting the signature crop

ALEX PULASKI
The Oregonian
March 16, 2007

Tests of watermelons grown in north-central Oregon don't show unhealthy levels of a chemical that has been found in groundwater, a federal environmental official said Thursday.

Dan Opalski, a regional director for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ordered the sampling after concluding that similar tests conducted by Oregon health authorities had relied on such flawed methods that their results were unusable. Opalski heads the EPA's Office of Environmental Cleanup in Seattle.

The new results lift a shadow from one of the region's signature crops that was left by the EPA's earlier findings that the state and a private lab had not used adequate care in handling samples and keeping records.

At both levels of government, the culprit being searched for was perchlorate, a chemical that occurs naturally but has been discovered in highest concentrations in runoff from munitions and rocket fuel. The state tested produce and milk in 2005 in Morrow and Umatilla counties after water-well tests there uncovered widespread but generally low-level perchlorate contamination. The source for the Oregon contamination is unclear.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1174013722231550.xml&coll=7

--


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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