[CPEO-MEF] DOD Perchlorate Use Survey

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

At the end of May, 2003, the Defense Department sent over to Congress
the results of the perchlorate survey that it reportedly conducted in
2001. We have made that document  available as a 5.6 Megabyte PDF file at
http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/dod-perchlorate.pdf.

One can understand why the Department was hesitant to release the survey
results. It shows that few Defense installations had been sampled for
perchlorate by that time, despite growing indications that it might be
present in the groundwater or soil at the majority of sites where it had
been used. 

Furthermore, the questions designed to determine perchlorate use did not
fully reflect today's knowledge of potential sources. For example, Army
officials now believe that simulants are a likely source of perchlorate
contamination found on or under maneuver areas, but the survey, written
just two or three years ago, didn't ask whether specific properties used
such chemicals.

Regulators may glean some useful data from the newly released survey
results, but it's time to move on. We should praise the Pentagon for
finally releasing the information, and it should expand its level of
cooperation. The military should work with regulatory agencies and
communities to develop a more useful perchlorate survey, and the results
of that survey, as well as knowledge from known plumes, should be used
to establish a comprehensive national sampling plan.

Lenny

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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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