[CPEO-MEF] Oregon watermelon perchlorate tests

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

[I'm not sure where the reporter got his conclusion. There are no 
standards for perchlorate in watermelon. EPA's fact sheet points out 
that the presence of perchlorate in food could drive down the drinking 
water standard for perchlorate. - LS]


Oregon melons test safe, EPA says
Health - The results lift a shadow that a chemical found in groundwater 
was tainting the signature crop

ALEX PULASKI
The Oregonian
March 16, 2007

Tests of watermelons grown in north-central Oregon don't show unhealthy 
levels of a chemical that has been found in groundwater, a federal 
environmental official said Thursday.

Dan Opalski, a regional director for the U.S. Environmental Protection 
Agency, ordered the sampling after concluding that similar tests 
conducted by Oregon health authorities had relied on such flawed methods 
that their results were unusable. Opalski heads the EPA's Office of 
Environmental Cleanup in Seattle.

The new results lift a shadow from one of the region's signature crops 
that was left by the EPA's earlier findings that the state and a private 
lab had not used adequate care in handling samples and keeping records.

At both levels of government, the culprit being searched for was 
perchlorate, a chemical that occurs naturally but has been discovered in 
highest concentrations in runoff from munitions and rocket fuel. The 
state tested produce and milk in 2005 in Morrow and Umatilla counties 
after water-well tests there uncovered widespread but generally 
low-level perchlorate contamination. The source for the Oregon 
contamination is unclear.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/business/1174013722231550.xml&coll=7

--


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


_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@list.cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org/mailman/listinfo/military