[CPEO-MEF] EPA Reaffirms 1999 Guidelines for Perchlorate

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@cpeo.org>]

February 3, 2003

EPA REAFFIRMS 1999 GUIDELINES 
FOR PERCHLORATE, PENDING STUDY

By Peter Waldman
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, treading lightly on an issue
fraught with Pentagon opposition, reaffirmed its 1999 guidelines for
addressing water pollution caused by the rocket-fuel component
perchlorate, pending completion of a new risk assessment in coming
months.

Meanwhile, the new chairman of the U.S. Senate's Environment and Public
Works Committee, Republican Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, weighed into
the health debate over perchlorate on the side of the defense industry,
which faces billions of dollars in potential cleanup costs for the
pollutant. In a four-page letter to the EPA's head of research and
development, dated Jan. 9 and reviewed this weekend by The Wall Street
Journal, Sen. Inhofe reiterated the industry's questions and concerns
over how the agency reached its draft finding last year that perchlorate
is hazardous in drinking water above one part per billion. The defense
industry argues perchlorate is safe at concentrations up to 200 
ppb.

The EPA's latest "guidance" for perchlorate was outlined in an
internal memo dated Jan. 22 by Marianne Lamont Horinko, the agency's
assistant administrator for toxic-waste cleanup. It instructs agency
personnel to continue using the EPA's 1999 cleanup benchmark of four to
18 ppb of perchlorate in drinking water. However, in deference to the
agency's draft risk assessment last year that found health dangers above
one ppb, Ms. Horinko told field personnel "to carefully consider the
low end of the provisional four-to-18-ppb range."

The new EPA guidance is the first time a political appointee of this Bush
administration has set policy on perchlorate, which has become a bone of
bitter contention between senior professionals of the EPA and Department
of Defense. Regulators at EPA field offices say the Horinko memo deftly
balances the agency's duty to "follow the science" in dealing
with perchlorate with sensitivity to Pentagon and defense-industry claims
that evidence of the chemical's toxicity is still in doubt.

"This memo is as clear a signal as we've had, from high up in EPA
management, that they're not putting perchlorate on the back
burner," an EPA regulator in the field said.

For example, the memo strongly reasserts the EPA's authority under
federal antipollution laws to regulate perchlorate, in contrast to claims
by Defense Department officials in recent months that the EPA, until it
promulgates a national drinking-water standard, can't order testing and
cleanup of perchlorate. Ms. Horinko, in the memo, also sets out an
ambitious timetable for finalizing the agency's so-called reference dose
for perchlorate over the coming months, the first step in the years-long
process of issuing a formal standard.

On the other hand, the memo resolves a crucial technical question in
favor of polluters, by instructing regulators to base site-specific
cleanup benchmarks on the average body weight of adults instead of those
of fetuses, infants and pregnant mothers -- the populations deemed most
at risk from perchlorate ingestion. (Body weight is a pivotal variable in
determining acceptable exposure levels of all environmental
pollutants.)

To view the full article please click on the following link:
WSJ.com
- EPA Reaffirms 1999 Guidelines For Perchlorate , Pending Study* 




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aimee R. Houghton                                  
Associate Director, CPEO
1101 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC  20036
tel: 202-452-8039; fax: 202-452-8095
Email: aimeeh@cpeo.org
www.cpeo.org
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