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By Elise
Kleeman
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
October 7, 2007
PASADENA
— This month, for the first time, the state will begin
regulating the amount of the toxin perchlorate in drinking
water.
As of Oct. 18, California will require that water contain no
more than six parts per billion of the rocket-fuel additive,
putting regulatory force behind what had been just a suggested
limit for the past five years.
That amount is about the same as a tablespoon of ink in an
Olympic-sized pool.
The change, lauded by some environmentalists, will make
California only the second state, behind Massachusetts, to
regulate the chemical in drinking water.
But there are also concerns that even the seemingly minuscule
amount set by the new limit is still too high.
Perchlorate has been shown to block the release of thyroid
gland hormones critical for normal growth and nervous system
development, making it particularly dangerous for pregnant
women and young children.
"We believe there is really no safe level of rocket fuel
in our drinking water," said Bernadette Del Chiaro of the
advocacy group Environment California. "We are
disappointed."
The Association for California Water Agencies, however,
supports the new standard. It notes that the state's Office of
Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has declared that the
six-parts- per-billion limit would cause no ill effects even
after 70 years of water consumption.
"Six parts per billion has been a good, health-effective,
cost-effective number," said Krista Clark, the
association's director of regulatory affairs. "There's no
justifiable reason to have a standard lower than that. To
treat lower than that would be to spend public tax dollars on
a standard that provides zero net health benefits."
However, the chemical's health impacts remain under debate.
In a 2002 study, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
recommended a maximum limit of one part per billion for
perchlorate in drinking water, a limit which Massachusetts
adopted last year.
The EPA estimates perchlorate contamination exists in at least
25 states.
In Los Angeles County alone, according to the California
Department of Public Health, 67 water sources have exceeded
six parts per billion of perchlorate at some point during the
past five years. Several of those sources are in the San
Gabriel Valley.
In Pasadena, the major sources of perchlorate contamination
are waste pits used at JPL during the 1940s and 1950s.
At a treatment plant on the laboratory grounds, water drawn
from beneath the surface has perchlorate levels of about 400
parts per billion, said Steve Slaten, the plant project's
manager for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
After treatment, he said, the water is returned to the ground
with a concentration of less than two parts per billion.
Drinking water from wells in Altadena tainted by the plume of
JPL toxins is cleaned until it has less than six parts per
billion of perchlorate.
Although some of Pasadena's water sources do contain
perchlorate, the new regulations will have little impact on
Pasadena Water and Power, said Shan Kwan, the agency's
director of water.
Six parts per billion "is what we originally thought that
the maximum contaminant level would be, so we were already
keeping that in mind," he said. "When we blend
(water sources), we always put a big safety factor in
there."
But although Pasadena has been "pretty careful,"
said Tim Brick, chairman of the Metropolitan Water District,
"I, frankly, believe that there are some agencies that
are blending water for whom this will be a problem."
Still, he said, "personally, I have concerns that six
parts might not be fully protective for the health of pregnant
women and children."
Despite a historical reluctance to advocate for more
regulatory standards, he said, MWD is supporting legislation
by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El
Monte, that would press the federal government to establish
its own perchlorate standards.
California's new regulations are at least a start, Brick said.
"I think it's progress that a level has been set because
it gives a standard that we can really work with, and now I
think a lot of clean up programs that have really lagged can
get going," he said.
elise.kleeman@sgvn.com
(626) 578-6300, Ext. 4451
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