EPA unlikely to join state in limiting chemical

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency probably won't follow California in ridding drinking water of a rocket fuel chemical that has contaminated supplies in Rancho Cordova and in dozens of other communities around the country, a top agency official said Tuesday.

Federal inaction on regulating the drinking-water contaminant perchlorate has left the Pentagon, NASA and defense contractors free to negotiate levels of cleanup with government agencies, potentially trimming the cost of restoring groundwater.

The void has also left communities and state health officials largely on their own in determining the acceptable level of perchlorate exposure.

California and Massachusetts are the only states that have set a maximum allowable contaminant level for perchlorate in drinking water, leaving the military and defense contractors such as GenCorp's Aerojet adjoining Rancho Cordova no choice but to meet the standard.

But perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel and munitions, has been found in groundwater in as many as 33 states that do not have enforceable standards.

In a Senate hearing Tuesday, EPA assistant water chief Benjamin Grumbles did not dispute studies showing that perchlorate increases risks of brain damage in fetuses and infants and thyroid disorders in adults.

But, Grumbles said, there's a "distinct possibility" the environmental agency won't take action because they don't know whether regulation would meaningfully reduce those risks.

Democratic senators called that unacceptable.

"EPA is trying to shunt the scientists to the back, put the (Defense Department) contractors to the front," chided Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee. "We want to see action by the scientists. We want to see a standard set."

The exchange came in a hearing on bills that would require the EPA to set drinking water standards for perchlorate and trichloroethylene (TCE), a toxic solvent that also threatens wells in Rancho Cordova.

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, recently criticized the EPA for having spent more than 10 years on an unfinished risk assessment for TCE, which has been linked to brain damage, liver cancer and immune disorders. The federal government has been studying the health effects of perchlorate at least as long without taking action.

The Defense Department's decades-long use of the chemicals has led to widespread contamination. Large doses of the chemical have been shown to interfere with the thyroid gland, which regulates brain development.

Federal law requires the EPA to adopt a national drinking regulation for a contaminant if the agency administrator makes certain findings.

For perchlorate, a stumbling block to regulation is the law's criterion that "such contamination presents a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public water systems," Grumbles said.

"Is there a meaningful opportunity to reduce risk if we issue a new national regulation on perchlorate? We've been spending a lot of time on that, Madame Chairman," Grumbles told Boxer.

Charles Berrey, a retired EPA official who managed the Aerojet cleanup, said the administration's explanation for inaction doesn't square with his understanding of the perchlorate risks.

"This comes as a surprise to me," Berrey said. "If there wasn't a health risk, we wouldn't have set a cleanup level for perchlorate in our record of decision at Aerojet."

Aerojet has spent millions of dollars in perchlorate and TCE monitoring and cleanup.

The EPA's perchlorate coordinator for California, Kevin Mayer, said he is at a loss to explain the federal law's prerequisite of a "meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction."

"I have asked, 'What does this mean?' I don't have a real answer. There seems to be a level of subjectivity here," Mayer said.

Perchlorate contamination is acute in California because of its large number of military operations and defense contractors.

The chemicals are linked to historical disposal practices at Aerojet. In the 1950s through 1970s, the defense contractor disposed of residual rocket fuel and metal-cleaning solvents in unlined open pits, allowing the wastes to seep through the soil and into the groundwater tapped for Rancho Cordova homes.

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