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In an extraordinary decision, President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler has decided to defy a court-ordered consent decree requiring the agency to issue a drinking water standard for the widespread contaminant perchlorate. Studies show this chemical poses threats to the brain development of fetuses and young infants and has been found in millions of Americans’ tap water. The decision, which not only ignores the science but violates a court order and the law, is expected to be announced publicly in coming weeks. Perchlorate is a component of rocket fuel, munitions, and fireworks that the Obama EPA determined in 2011 requires regulation because of the health threat it poses to the drinking water of as many as 16 million Americans ... Because perchlorate threatens the health of fetuses, infants, and young children especially, the American Academy of Pediatrics, multiple independent scientists, and many states (as discussed below) have weighed in, urging EPA to set a strict standard for perchlorate in drinking water. They have been ignored by Wheeler ... The Obama EPA found in 2011 that a perchlorate drinking water standard was needed to protect health, especially that of vulnerable fetuses and young children. This finding triggered a legal duty to regulate perchlorate.
When EPA was slow to issue standards after that finding, NRDC sued, and a federal judge hearing the case said that EPA needs “a fire lit under them” to address the urgent problem. In response, the agency agreed in a court-approved consent decree to propose a perchlorate drinking water standard by October 2018 and to finalize it by late 2019. EPA sought extensions, citing the need for more study, so the standard is now due in June 2020. In an astonishing step, Wheeler is purporting to revoke the agency’s 2011 finding that a perchlorate standard is needed to protect the health of millions of Americans, especially fetuses, infants, and young children. EPA therefore will not comply with the court-ordered consent decree requiring a final drinking water standard for perchlorate by June 2020 and will not comply with the legal requirement to set a standard once it has formally determined that one is necessary ... When EPA was first considering establishing a drinking water standard for perchlorate in the early 2000s, documents NRDC obtained through litigation under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that the DOD and its contractors mobilized a massive campaign to stop the agency from moving forward.
Erik D. Olson
Natural Resources Defense Council
May 14, 2020
The country's primary government agency in charge of protecting human health and the environment is choosing NOT to regulate a chemical called perchlorate in drinking water. While an official decision hasn't been published yet, this week it was reported that Andrew Wheeler, the administrator of the EPA, decided the agency will not impose limits on perchlorate to protect human health. The agency was required to establish drinking water standards for the chemical by next month. To be clear, everyone reading this article almost certainly has perchlorate in their bloodstream. Perhaps more importantly, perchlorate is even found in amniotic fluid and umbilical cord blood, so fetuses are being exposed. If we are all exposed, then why would the EPA choose not to regulate it unless it is safe? ... Perchlorate can interfere with normal brain development in our children ... The right amount of thyroid hormone is essential for the human brain to develop properly. This is true from early on in the first trimester of pregnancy well into the second year of childhood. Perchlorate can block the ability of our thyroid glands to get enough iodine to make the proper amount of thyroid hormone. So, perchlorate is most certainly hazardous ...
Most of the environmental perchlorate we are exposed to is man-made. It is both easy and cheap to make and it is used primarily as an ingredient in explosives. Fireworks, air-bags, rocket fuel, ammunition are all important sources of perchlorate. Over many decades of careless disposal, many parts of the country have become heavily contaminated — to the extent that major river systems have measurable levels of perchlorate. Much of this contamination has come from military installations — the Department of Defense. And, using your tax dollars, they have fought hard to avoid having to clean it up (again with your tax dollars) ... When the EPA first performed a risk assessment on perchlorate in the 1990s, they initially proposed a safe level in drinking water to be one microgram per liter of water. This is about a drop of water in an Olympic size pool. Massachusetts, for example, currently has a drinking water standard of two micrograms per liter. So, the most important federal agency charged with protecting human health and the environment has "evolved" from a health protective proposal to no regulation at all.
R. Thomas Zoeller
Environmental Health News
May 18, 2020
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