[CPEO-MEF] PERCHLORATE: Mount Rushmore fireworks contaminated water

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Officials knew fireworks at Mount Rushmore could cause a fire. But they didn’t expect this.

By Darryl Fears 
Washington Post
May 3, 2016

Fireworks at Mount Rushmore were probably a bad idea to begin with. In South Dakota’s woodsy Black Hills, the thousands of onlookers who flocked to the display had to use the same entrance, which is also the exit.

What if the pyrotechnics sparked a forest fire? And what if there were some other emergency? Those are two questions that officials at the national memorial site grappled with during the 11 years starting in 1998 that the event was held. But there was at least one other threat, something officials at the national memorial didn’t consider until a U.S. Geological Survey investigation recently uncovered it in the drinking water.

The fireworks were discontinued in 2011 but they left high levels of a chemical called perchlorate in water used by 3 million people who visit the memorial yearly. The Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t regulate the chemical under the Clean Water Act, but Galen Hoogestraat, the lead author of the investigation, said the agency does provide guidelines that say that any presence over 15 parts per billion is a possible health risk.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/03/officials-knew-fireworks-at-mount-rushmore-could-cause-a-fire-but-they-didnt-expect-this/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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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