[CPEO-BIF] The TCE Battle

["lsiegel@cpeo.org" <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

(Please excuse the duplicate posting.)

How Environmentalists Lost the Battle Over TCE

By Ralph Vartabedian
Los Angeles Times 
March 29, 2006

After massive underground plumes of an industrial solvent were discovered
in the nation's water supplies, the Environmental Protection Agency mounted
a major effort in the 1990s to assess how dangerous the chemical was to
human health.

Following four years of study, senior EPA scientists came to an alarming
conclusion: The solvent, trichloroethylene, or TCE, was as much as 40 times
more likely to cause cancer than the EPA had previously believed.

The preliminary report in 2001 laid the groundwork for tough new standards
to limit public exposure to TCE. Instead of triggering any action, however,
the assessment set off a high-stakes battle between the EPA and Defense
Department, which had more than 1,000 military properties nationwide
polluted with TCE.

By 2003, after a prolonged challenge orchestrated by the Pentagon, the EPA
lost control of the issue and its TCE assessment was cast aside. As a
result, any conclusion about whether millions of Americans were being
contaminated by TCE was delayed indefinitely.

What happened with TCE is a stark illustration of a power shift that has
badly damaged the EPA's ability to carry out one of its essential missions:
assessing the health risks of toxic chemicals.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-toxic29mar29,0,5610036
.story?page=5&coll=la-home-headlines

-- 
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
http://www.cpeo.org


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