[CPEO-MEF] PERCHLORATE: "EPA to Promulgate Regulations"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Proposed Settlement Agreement Requires US EPA to Promulgate Perchlorate Regulations by the End of 2019

by Jonathan S. King
National Law Review
December 26, 2016

US EPA recently agreed in federal court to engage in a rulemaking process over the next three-plus years which would culminate in the promulgation of final perchlorate regulations by December 19, 2019. Perchlorate remains the only unregulated contaminant for which US EPA has made a final determination to regulate since the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) was amended in 1996.

Perchlorate is a highly soluble chemical in water and can move quickly from soil contamination into groundwater. It has been used by the US Department of Defense as an oxidizer in munitions and missiles since the 1940s, and 90 percent of its manufacturing is for the defense and aerospace industries.  In a February 2011 declaration, US EPA determined that it should regulate perchlorate in drinking water—giving itself 24 months from that date to propose regulations and another 18 months thereafter to finalize them under the SDWA. However, due in part to the Scientific Advisory Board’s rejection of the model US EPA submitted for perchlorate regulation, these self-imposed deadlines were missed. As a result of the delay, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a complaint in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against US EPA in February 2016 to enforce the deadline for proposed perchlorate regulations for public comment.


...

Fpr the entire article, see
http://www.natlawreview.com/article/proposed-settlement-agreement-requires-us-epa-to-promulgate-perchlorate-regulations

--

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/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org