[CPEO-MEF] Perchlorate and TCE

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Both sides armed with science and studies in conflict over health risks
Disputes move into laboratory

By Peter Eisler
USA TODAY 
October 14, 2004

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. - Each day, a bit more perchlorate from
beneath this vast Army installation leaches into the well fields that
give the city of Aberdeen its drinking water.

Perchlorate is a pollutant from munitions used for decades at the
75,000-acre weapons-testing facility. In the past two years, the
chemical has shown up in all 11 of Aberdeen's city wells.

...

But the Pentagon refuses to clean up perchlorate at Aberdeen and dozens
of other sites nationwide. It's part of a battle with the EPA over how
much of the chemical can safely be left in soil and water.

The dispute highlights a Defense Department push to take regulatory
fights into the laboratory. State and federal environmental agencies are
using new scientific studies to make a case for tighter limits on
military pollutants, which would add billions to Pentagon cleanup costs.
At the same time, the armed services are enlisting their own scientists
and funding research to challenge those studies.

The big battles involve perchlorate and trichloroethylene, or TCE, a
solvent used in military vehicle maintenance. The EPA's latest studies
say health risks from exposure to both chemicals are higher than
previously believed. After the Pentagon complained to the White House
about the studies, the EPA decided that its research, already checked by
independent panels, should go to the National Academy of Sciences for
more study.

...

for the entire article, see
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20041014/1a_dodscience14.art.htm

-- 


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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