The EPA Refuses to Remove Rocket Fuel From Drinking Water
by Jo Hartley

http://www.naturalnews.com/024495.html


The EPA has apparently decided that it is not necessary to remove from our drinking water a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that has been found in public water supplies in the United States. The EPA reached this conclusion in a draft regulatory document that has not yet been released to the public.

The ingredient is called perchlorate and has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states. The levels it is being found at could interfere with thyroid function and might also pose developmental health risks, especially for babies and fetuses, according to some scientists.

The EPA has stated that requiring a cleanup to remove perchlorate would not result in a "meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems." This conclusion was denounced by Democrats and environmentalist groups, who are accusing the EPA of giving in to pressure from the Pentagon.

The Defense Department has utilized perchlorate for years in their testing of missiles and rockets. Most perchlorate contamination comes as a result of defense and aerospace testing activities. The Pentagon could be found liable if only the EPA would set a national drinking water standard that would force water agencies throughout the US to participate in and complete cleanup efforts. Defense officials have spent years questioning the EPA's conclusions about the risks associated with perchlorate.

The Pentagon has objected strenuously to the suggestion that it tried to influence the EPA's decision. They state that they have not intervened in any EPA determinations for perchlorate regulation.

Apparently the Pentagon has been working for years to clean up perchlorate from its facilities. The Pentagon also suggests that they are not the source of as much perchlorate contamination as was once believed. Perchlorate contamination also comes from fireworks, road flares, and fertilizer.

They do admit, however, that perchlorate in drinking water presents a certain degree of risk. They also state that they are committed to working with states and scientists to ensure that public health is protected and that important opportunities for reducing these risks are utilized.

The EPA expects to seek comment and take any final actions before the end of the year.
Perchlorate is especially widespread in California and other areas of the Southwest. It has been found in groundwater is these areas as well as in the Colorado River. The Colorado River is a drinking-water source for approximately 20 million people. Perchlorate has also been found in lettuce and certain other foods.

Because of a lack of federal action, some states have decided to act on their own. California adopted a drinking water standard of 6 parts per billion in 2007. Massachusetts has designated a drinking water standard of 2 parts per billion.

The EPA has stated that requiring a cleanup to remove perchlorate would not result in a "meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems."

There is not a chance that that statement is anywhere near true. If you told all those big salaried people at the top of EPA they needed to drink the most concentrated perchlorate exclusively for a year to prove they believe that nonsense, you would hear some real excuse making.

The fascists don't worry about the lawsuits taking their cronyism less profitable because they control the courts too. People should have an understanding on the subject of water that includes fluoride, chlorine, the BPA in plastics, as well as common industrial pollutants like MTBE and perchlorate. There only needs to be one good article for all those underpaid teachers to present there classes so that they might have a floor of knowledge on drinking water. But no, it gets in the way of our infantilism. Has anyone heard the word "Superfund" in the last couple of years?

NaturalNews list some other articles to their link for their key concept of perchlorate- http://www.naturalnews.com/perchlorate.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perchlorate
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Health effects

Perchlorate greatly impacts human health by interfering with iodide uptake into the thyroid gland. In adults, the thyroid gland helps regulate the metabolism by releasing hormones, while in children, the thyroid helps in proper development. Perchlorate is becoming a serious threat to human health and water resources.[13]

The NAS found that perchlorate only affects the thyroid gland. It is not stored in the body, it is not metabolized, and any effects of perchlorate on the thyroid gland are fully reversible once exposure stops[citation needed]. There has been some concern on perchlorates effects on fetuses, newborns and children, but several peer-reviewed studies on children and newborns also provide reason to believe that low levels of perchlorate do not pose a threat to these populations.[citation needed] On October 1, 2004, the American Thyroid Association (ATA) reported that perchlorate may not be as harmful to newborns, pregnant women and other adults as previously thought.[14]

A study involving healthy adult volunteers determined that at levels above 0.007 milligrams per kilogram per day (mg/kg-d), perchlorate can temporarily inhibit the thyroid gland’s ability to absorb iodine from the bloodstream ("iodide uptake inhibition", thus perchlorate is a known goitrogen).[15] The EPA converted this dose into a reference dose of 0.0007 mg/kg-d by dividing this level by the standard intraspecies uncertainty factor of 10. The agency then calculated a "drinking water equivalent level" of 24.5 ppb by assuming a person weighs 70 kilograms (154 pounds) and consumes 2 liters (68 ounces) of drinking water per day over a lifetime.[16] Thus, 25 ppb was set as the recommended drinking water standard (the DWEL). For that reason, most media reports call this the "safe" level of exposure. The NAS report also stated additional research would be helpful, but emphasized that the existing database on perchlorate was sufficient to make its reference dose recommendation and ensure it would be protective for everyone.[citation needed]

Recent research, however, has shown inhibition of iodide uptake in the thyroids of women at much lower levels, levels attainable from normally contaminated water and milk.[17]

http://www.amazon.com/Perchlorate-Environmental-Solutions-Kathleen-Sellers/dp/0849380812/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1224104219&sr=11-1

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TZW98V71L._SL500_BO2,204,203,200_AA219_PIsitb-sticker-dp-arrow,TopRight,-24,-23_SH20_OU01_.jpg

http://www.plentymag.com/thecurrent/2008/10/the_problem_with_perchlorate.php
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The problem with perchlorate

Some people have been kicking up an awful lot of fuss about the EPA’s decision to not regulate the amount of perchlorate found in drinking water. If you don’t track hazardous waste in the environment as obsessively as we do, perchlorate is an explosive used in rocket propellant and fireworks that has been detected in the water supplies of 35 states. It’s also shown up in leafy vegetables irrigated with Colorado River water, and in milk from California cows, indicating that perchlorate can disperse and concentrate itself in everything from the environment, to the food we eat, to our own bodies. No studies have yet been released on the chemical’s effect on aquatic life, but we do know it’s hazardous to humans. Perchlorate, according to the FDA, disrupts thyroid hormone function. Fetuses and infants are particularly at risk because thyroid hormones are crucial to normal central nervous system growth and development.

We at Plenty just can’t wrap our heads around why the EPA wouldn’t regulate a chemical that is known to be hazardous to humans. Or actually, maybe we can: Ironically, we have the Department of Defense to thank for the rocket fuel, according to congressional investigators. All that aerospace activity and missile testing over the last 50 years dumped an awful lot of this thyroid-disrupting chemical into the environment, but the EPA decided that there is no 'meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction' through stricter national regulation. Shockingly, most chemical contaminants associated with munitions use are unregulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, indicating that the EPA is in the DoD’s and munitions industry’s pocket, and doesn’t have the best interests of the American people in mind (shocking!).

Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest law firm originally established by the Sierra Club, agrees, and is suing the EPA for caving under the pressure from the DoD and military contractors who would be required to clean up after themselves if national regulations were enacted. With any luck, the folks at Earthjustice will be able to pull through a victory. They claim that perchlorate concentrations of less than 5 parts per billion have been shown to disrupt hormone activity, a number well below the 24.5 parts per billion declared safe by the EPA.

<snipped>

This is a copy from http://www.perchlorate.org/topics/origin_perch_problem.html

This is their homepage- http://www.perchlorate.org/
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ORIGIN OF THE PERCHLORATE PROBLEM

The "discovery" of drinking water contaminated with the solid rocket fuel component perchlorate and the liquid rocket fuel component nitrosodimethylamine is a legacy of the Sewergate scandal of 1983. The principal figure in that affair was Rita Lavelle, head of the Superfund and former manager of the Aerojet Liquid Rocket Testing Facility in Rancho Cordova. The ion chromatography (IC) method used to measure perchlorate to a level of 200 parts-per-billion was available in 1983, although a lab technician in that year would have to wait an hour to get the results for perchlorate. Adjustments in IC plumbing and measurement time were made in 1986 so that the FBI Crime Lab could use the technique in criminal cases involving explosives.

As this new IC technology was being developed, a Superfund consent decree mandated an erratic, unreliable, and obsolete ion specific electrode method for monitoring parts-per-million perchlorate plumes that migrated off of the Aerojet Superfund site into Rancho Cordova. EPA investigators concerned about perchlorate in the San Gabriel Valley were told to turn their attention to more important problems. This allowed the perchlorate problem to remain undetected for a decade, and as a result some residents of the San Gabriel Valley were exposed to close to a 1-in-500 cancer risk from the liquid rocket fuel component nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in their drinking water.

If perchlorate had been properly monitored in 1986, its detection in both Rancho Cordova and the San Gabriel Valley would have prevented the more dangerous drinking water exposures to NDMA from Lavelle's former Aerojet workplace. The week the existence of perchlorate in drinking water was first made public (March, 1997), the president of Aerojet announced his plans to retire and Mr. James Strock resigned. Strock was head of the California Environmental Protection Agency, and former head of the enforcement division of the US EPA (see http://www.strock-california.com/ ).

For information on the history of ion chromatography, contact Dr. Peter Jackson of Dionex Corporation in Sunnyvale, CA. For information on Sewergate and Aerojet, search for Rita Lavelle at http://rtk.net/E10049T609 .

From Feinstein's official .gov website at http://www.senate.gov/~feinstein/04Releases/r-perch-leg.htm

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Senator Feinstein Seeks to
Address Nationwide Perchlorate Problem
December 22, 2004
pdf version

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced plans today to introduce legislation to address the problem of perchlorate contamination in food and water supplies across the country when the Senate convenes in January.

“In California, perchlorate has been found in more than 350 drinking water sources,” Senator Feinstein said. “It has seeped into the Colorado River and last month, the FDA reported that perchlorate was detected at numerous locations around the country. This is not just a California problem. It is a national problem.”

The FDA study, released in November, found perchlorate in 90 percent of lettuce samples taken in California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, and New Jersey and 101 of 104 milk samples taken at retail stores around the country.

A study by the Environmental Working Group, released in June, revealed the penetration of perchlorate into the food chain in 32 out of 32 milk samples found in California. The study also determined the average perchlorate concentration to be at 5.85 parts per billion, almost six times as high as the Environmental Protection Agency's provisional daily safe dose.

“It is imperative that we reduce the perchlorate in our drinking water and protect Californians, especially pregnant women, the unborn, infants, and young children, from this threat to their health,” Senator Feinstein added. “There is much more work to do to determine the scope and the severity of the contamination across the country.”

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.

Previously practiced disposal methods such as burning, open detonation, and use of high-pressure water to wash it out of rockets, has allowed perchlorate to seep into surface and groundwater supplies over the last 50 years. Perchlorate has now been identified as a contaminant of drinking water sources or in the environment in 34 states.

High levels of perchlorate impede thyroid hormone production by interfering with iodine uptake. Insufficient thyroid hormone production during early stages in life can permanently damage a child’s physical and mental development.

The legislation that Senator Feinstein plans to introduce in the 109 th Congress 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 EPA to set a national primary drinking water standard for perchlorate, and
* make perchlorate polluting entities responsible for contamination cleanup efforts.

Senator Feinstein became aware of widespread concerns about perchlorate in the water supply based on tests performed in the fall of 2002. This year she was able to secure $2.775 million in appropriations funding to research the scope of perchlorate contamination in California and to clean up wells that have been contaminated. Senator Feinstein secured an additional $6.5 million in perchlorate cleanup funding as part of the Defense Department’s appropriations bill. The funding includes:

* $4 million for the Environmental Security Technical Certification Program to conduct perchlorate research and demonstrate cleanup technologies in California ’s Rialto-Colton Basin , and
* $2.5 million, requested by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), for wellhead treatment where perchlorate contaminated water is pumped out, treated and then passed along back into the water supply system.

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I think there are only two areas that the Democrats are consistently better than Republicans. I think regulatory agencies function (although not great, wasn't rBGH approved under Clinton?) much better under Democrats, and also Democrats appoint better judges to the courts. I'm not going to vote for them based on these two things, but I think they are different in these two areas. The Republicans appoint lobbyists for the industries they are supposed to be regulating to our regulatory agencies, and they appoint 'strict constructionist' federalist society anti-American judges to the courts (unless moderate Republicans they appoint more moderate but still conservative or moderate judges, I don't think too many Republicans make the kind of mistake Ford did, by appointing judges like John Paul Stevens).