[CPEO-MEF] Bush Seeks Liability Shield On Perchlorate Pollution

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Bush Seeks Liability Shield On Perchlorate Pollution
Administration Looks to Protect Military, Contractors From Environmental
Laws
By PETER WALDMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The Bush administration, in the name of military "readiness," is asking
Congress to shield the Pentagon and certain defense contractors from a
broad array of environmental laws -- exemptions that among other things
could greatly diminish the defense establishment's liability for
perchlorate pollution in the nation's water supply.

Meanwhile, on a different front in the battle between environmental
regulators and defense officials over perchlorate -- a component of
rocket fuel that is turning up widely in drinking supplies -- the
administration has decided to refer health questions about perchlorate
to the National Academy of Sciences for further review. The pending
study is likely to delay significantly efforts by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to set a national drinking-water standard for the
chemical, which the EPA found last year poses risks to human health at
drinking-water levels above just one part per billion.

The administration's two-pronged attack on regulating perchlorate comes
after a protracted interagency debate on the chemical's health effects.
The Pentagon and several of its suppliers, which could face several
billion dollars in cleanup costs, have criticized vehemently the EPA's
draft assessment of perchlorate's health dangers, arguing the chemical
is harmless at drinking-water concentrations up to 200 times what the
EPA says. Some EPA officials express concern the defense establishment,
with so much money at stake, will attempt to stack the National Academy
of Sciences review panel with its own sympathetic consultants.

This article can be viewed at:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB104759770890946500-IFheoZhmaF3xJupZX2peqaAdY,00.html

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