[CPEO-MEF] Plutonium-in-water standard questioned

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

P R E S S    R E L E A S E
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
For Release August 3, 2005


EPA Drinking Water Standard for Plutonium Is 100 Times Too Weak; New 
Research Shows Current Level is Based on Decades-Old, Obsolete Science

Waste at Nuclear Weapons Sites Threatens Vital Water Resources; EPA 
Urged to Act Quickly to Tighten Maximum Contaminant Limits

Takoma Park, Maryland, August 3, 2005: The federally-allowed level of 
drinking water contamination by plutonium-239, one of the ingredients of 
atomic bombs, and other radioactive materials with similar properties is 
100 times too high, according to a new scientific analysis released 
today by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER). The 
report called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set 
new standards that better protect human health.

"The EPA's Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for plutonium and other 
alpha-emitting long-lived transuranic radionuclides is one hundred times 
too lax because it is based on obsolete, 1950s science," said Dr. Arjun 
Makhijani, president of IEER and author of the new report, Bad to the 
Bone: Analysis of the Federal Maximum Contaminant Levels for 
Plutonium-239 and Other Alpha-Emitting Transuranic Radionuclides in 
Drinking Water. "The current scientific assessment of plutonium 
indicates that the dose to human bones is far greater than was estimated 
at the time standards were published."

The current MCL for plutonium and related radioactive pollutants was set 
in 1976, when the EPA first issued its safe drinking water standards for 
radionuclides under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

According to the report, advances over the past three decades in the 
scientific understanding of the behavior in the body of plutonium and 
other alpha-emitting, long-lived transuranic radionuclides shows that 
such radionuclides concentrate near the bone surface and deliver a dose 
per unit intake that is far higher than previously estimated. The 
scientific research has been published by the EPA in its guidance 
documents. Yet, the IEER report demonstrates that the science has not 
been incorporated into the MCLs for these radionuclides.

"The EPA is required to review and update its rules for the protection 
of public health on a regular basis," said Geoff Fettus, staff attorney 
at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "This IEER study shows 
that the EPA should act with alacrity to tighten standards to protect 
public health and remain within the intent and spirit of the drinking 
water regulations. NRDC will work with IEER and other organizations in 
the coming year to make sure it does so."

IEER, joined by NRDC, Clean Water Action and other groups, transmitted 
the report today to Cynthia Dougherty, director of the EPA groundwater 
and drinking water office, with a letter urging the agency to change the 
combined drinking water limit for alpha-emitting, long-lived transuranic 
radionuclides from 15 picocuries per liter to 0.15 picocuries per liter. 
The groups also asked the EPA to incorporate the IEER analysis into the 
agency's next regulatory review of the radionuclides portion of the Safe 
Drinking Water Act, slated for 2006.

"The urgency that the EPA implement this change derives from the fact 
that long-lived radioactive waste, including plutonium, is being 
cemented in tanks or otherwise left in the vicinity of crucial water 
resources," said Dr. Makhijani, referring to a law Congress passed in 
2004 allowing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to reclassify residual 
high-level waste as incidental waste.

According to the report, water resources such as the Savannah River, 
which forms the border between South Carolina and Georgia, the Snake 
River Plain Aquifer in Southern Idaho, and the Columbia River are at 
risk from wastes containing alpha-emitting, long-lived transuranic 
radionuclides.

"The Department of Energy is proceeding without strict, national 
remediation rules," said Jeremy Maxand, Executive Director of the Snake 
River Alliance, which has endorsed the report's findings. "Once 
plutonium gets into the water, it will not be possible to remediate it - 
and we have a ton of it here, literally, above the Snake River Plain 
Aquifer. Several major cleanup decisions at our site will be made in the 
next year or two, and the EPA needs to act to ensure that the DOE 
adheres to protective norms so far as drinking water is concerned."

States with water resources that may be impacted by large amounts of DOE 
plutonium wastes include South Carolina, Georgia, Idaho, Washington, 
Oregon, New Mexico, and Nevada.

The report, Bad to the Bone: Analysis of the Federal Maximum Contaminant 
Levels for Plutonium-239 and Other Alpha-Emitting Transuranic 
Radionuclides in Drinking Water, can be downloaded in full from IEER's 
website at http://www.ieer.org.

-30-

For the original press release and links, go to
http://www.ieer.org/reports/badtothebone/pressrel.html

--
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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