TRICKLES OF HOPE
The California Chamber of Commerce agreed, saying state policymakers should allow time to consider the findings of an independent scientific peer review team with the National Academy of Science that’s been working on the perchlorate question in order “to ensure that the best available science is used to adopt a final drinking water standard.”
Another group advocating a delay in OEHHA’s deadline in order to include data gathered in the peer review is the Council on Water Quality, a newly formed industry lobby group funded by Lockheed Martin, Aerojet (GenCorp Inc.), Kerr-McGee Chemical and American Pacific Corporation, all major perchlorate polluters.
Lockheed Martin’s perchlorate pollution has fouled the groundwater of Rialto in San Bernardino County, and both Aerojet’s Azusa plant and its Rancho Cordoba site near Sacramento are Superfund sites heavily polluted with perchlorate.
American Pacific Corp. and Kerr-McGee are perchlorate producers in Henderson Nev., with around 900 pounds of the toxin from Kerr-McGee leaching into the Colorado River on a daily basis. The result has been an average perchlorate reading of 9 ppb in water used for drinking by millions of Southern Californians.
In stark contrast to the federal government’s findings, the industry-sponsored Council on Water Quality Web site claims that “perchlorate does no damage to the thyroid gland. High levels of perchlorate [above 200 parts per billion] can temporarily affect the thyroid’s ability to absorb iodide from the bloodstream, but this in itself is harmless [it happens naturally in every human as a result of diet and other factors].”
The group goes on to assert, with little scientific evidence, that there is “reason to believe that low levels of perchlorate (below 200 ppb) also have no measurable effect on pregnant women or fetuses. Research is now being conducted to confirm this, with results expected in 2004.”
Along with clashing with the federal EPA, which is considering lowering its exposure standard from 2 ppb to 1 ppb, this assertion is also at odds with the state EPA, which lowered its action level from 18 ppb to 4 pbb in recognition of perchlorate’s toxicity.
Not only does Council on Water Quality recommend waiting to enact a California perchlorate standard until the National Academy of Science comes back with its review, probably sometime next year, so does the Western Growers Association, which represents 90 percent of the fresh fruit and vegetable growers and shippers in Arizona and California.
“It’s important to California, but we also believe that that standard needs to based on the best available science possible,” said Hank Giclas, the association’s vice president of science and technology.
“We have faith that the National Academy of Sciences is going to bring to the table some additional information that should be considered by California. While we’re not advocating any kind of a delay, we are advocating the use of every piece of information possible in order to make the best decision for our state,” Giclas said.
It’s that kind of “information” that has public health advocates and environmentalists concerned. Information obtained by the Pasadena Weekly shows that at least two of the National Academy of Science review panels have worked for at least one of the major perchlorate polluters.
Reviewer “Charles Capen was a paid consultant to Lockheed Martin regarding perchlorate,” according to a Natural Resources Defense Council document. “There is evidence that this consulting relationship was in existence in 1998 and 1999.”
The National Resources Defense Council also learned that another Academy of Science reviewer, Richard Bull, “was a paid consultant to Lockheed Martin in toxic tort litigation regarding perchlorate and other chemical pollution in Redlands.… This litigation is currently ongoing, although Dr. Bull’s current status as a consultant to Lockheed Martin is unknown to us.”
What is also unknown is the status of Department of Defense sites across the state that have used perchlorate. Nationwide, defense and aerospace industries buy more than 90 percent of the perchlorate produced annually, or 20 million pounds.
Since the Defense Department stopped its practice of open-detonation and burning of perchlorate-contaminated rocket engines as a means of disposal, the department’s inventory of perchlorate-containing propellant is expected to swell to over 164 million pounds by next year.
Last summer, California’s nine regional water quality control boards requested Department of Defense perchlorate data and sampling plans for 71 military compounds and former defense sites across the state.
To date, the water boards have received no information from the Defense Department and may now be required to issue notices and orders to unravel yet another missing piece of the perchlorate puzzle plaguing California.
