Defying Science, Decree & Law: EPA Won't Set Perchlorate DWS

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

Wheeler won't impose perchlorate limits to protect health.

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

Huge Cache of MD + Lab Waste Found Under Public Safety Bldg.

Lab waste dug from under PSB foundation (pg. 14)

The objective of the Public Safety Building (PSB) project is to excavate the soil underneath the footprint of the former PSB, an area of approximately 30 x 60 feet.  Past investigative and removal efforts have been conducted around the former building.  At that time, it was determined that the Munitions debris (MD) likely continued underneath the building.  The Site-Wide Decision Document included a directive that, if American University were to demolish the building, USACE Baltimore would remove the foundation and slab and conduct excavations underneath the slab to depths required to ensure that all American University Experiment Station (AUES)-related debris has been removed from AU campus ... The small ceramic jug marked Mercury is similar to jugs found during previous excavations at the PSB.  The rest of the recovered laboratory items are broken pieces of glassware.  Occasionally, an intact bottle is found, but none of these bottles were stoppered or sealed ... MD recovered to date includes:
   - Opened Livens Mk1 incendiary projectile
    - Expended M2 hand grenade; UXO technicians found and identified 2 pieces that would have formed an M2 hand grenade
    - Projectile nose cones
    - A 75mm projectile; the 75mm projectile is the most common munition found at Spring Valley
    - Booster tube; a long booster tube, likely for a Livens projectile ... The booster would have a delayed explosive charge in it that would have allowed the Livens to open up on detonation and spread the contents around the target area.
    - Bomb fins; bomb fins have been found previously at the PSB
    - Nose cone-type fuze
    - Bomb assembly items
    - A 4-inch Stokes mortar nose; the AUES utilized both the 3-inch and 4-inch Stokes mortar.  Encountering a 4-inch Stokes mortar item is unusual in Spring Valley.
Spring Valley RAB
Meeting Minutes

March 10, 2020 (pgs. 6 - 9) 

MD dug from under PSB foundation (pg. 16)

Despite Bottles, PSB Dig Remains "low probability" Thus Far

Brenda Barber [USACE]: During soil removal activities, two intact glass bottles were encountered in the soil around the former Public Safety Building on December 3rd and work was paused immediately.  One of the glass bottles was unsealed and the other was sealed with a stopper.  No stained soils or unusual odors were observed in the area where the bottles were found.  The glassware was secured and sent to Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) for analysis after the glassware cleared headspace analysis at the Federal Property. The glassware was determined to be non-hazardous and cleared for agent ... Barber confirmed that the glass bottles were found in the upslope.  All encountered items are tracked, and the team will present that information to the Partners to determine if the excavation limits need to be expanded ... [Barber] explained that the glass bottles were found in the final bench, a couple feet from the foundation; not significantly outside the limits of the excavation, but adjacent to the former footprint of the PSB.
Spring Valley RAB 
Meeting Minutes
January 14, 2020 (pg. 6)

Glass bottles were found in soil at former PSB on Dec. 3 (USACE)

In response to a question from DOEE [District Department of Energy & Environment], Weston Solutions and USACE Baltimore explained that if an item or substance is found that violates the low probability determination, then work would stop and the path forward would be discussed ... If the team determines that the probability must be elevated to high probability, then a new contract would be necessary.  Currently, the project is not set up for high probability work, and a new contractor that is prepared to perform a high probability action would need to be found.  Many years ago, a small amount of chemical agent was found in Lot 18, but since that time tons of debris and contaminated soil have been removed, and none of the contamination has been agent.  A piece of Munitions & Explosives of Concern (MEC) was found at the former PSB in the past, but the project was determined to be low probability going forward.  Over 100 pieces of munitions debris have been found near the former PSB and in Lot 18, but the single item was the only item that qualified as MEC.  The MEC item was a burster that was torn open and the high explosive was visible inside. 
Spring Valley FUDS Partners
Meeting Minutes
December 5, 2019 (pgs. 7 - 8)

EPA, NRDC Agree to Six-Month Delay of Perchlorate Standard

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Defense Council have agreed to extend the deadline for the agency to finalize a rule on perchlorate in drinking water by six months, reports Inside EPA ... In an October 1 filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, EPA and NRDC say, “the parties have stipulated to extend the deadline ... for perchlorate from December 19, 2019, to June 19, 2020” ... Last May, EPA proposed an MCLG and Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 56 parts per billion (ppb), notes Inside EPA; “in that proposal, the agency also asked the public to comment by Aug. 26 on a variety of other options including setting levels more and less stringent or not regulating the chemical at all in drinking water, given new information on occurrence levels.”  When EPA proposed the perchlorate rule, “it sought comment on setting the MCL and MCLG at 18 ppb, 90 ppb, or withdrawing EPA’s 2011 determination to regulate perchlorate at all in drinking water,” writes the newsletter.  “As such, the proposal could test the agency’s discretion under Safe Drinking Water Act to forgo setting an enforceable standard, an area of that law that sources say is still evolving,” says Inside EPA.
Mark Gibson
American Chemistry Council
October 11, 2019

 Proposed 56 ppb rule is "too lax" (Vorel)

The Environmental Protection Network appreciates the opportunity to provide a statement on our comments on the EPA’s proposed new drinking water standard for perchlorate ... On August 26, 2019, EPN submitted comments to EPA raising serious concerns about its proposed new drinking water standard for perchlorate ... Due to serious questions about the scientific defensibility of the EPA perchlorate regulation and the validity of the monitoring and cost-benefit analysis, EPN strongly recommends that EPA: (1) submit a new proposal that does not include an option to withdraw from the 2011 regulatory determination; (2) recalculate the MCLG and MCL with an appropriately sensitive endpoint, an adequate margin of safety, and a peer-reviewed RSC; and (3) develop cost-effective monitoring recommendations and a cost-benefit analysis that accounts for co-benefits.
Environmental Protection Network
Statement to National Drinking Water Advisory Council
November 22, 2019

 

Kreeger Bldg. well on AU campus detected 

perchlorate over twice the MCL [pg. 36]

This week, the Sierra Club joined dozens of environmental and health scientists and advocates in demanding that the EPA protect women and children from perchlorate — an industrial chemical that contaminates drinking water for millions of people in the United States.  After years of studying the impact of perchlorate exposure, the EPA is proposing a drinking water standard that is too lax and would put millions of American children at risk of developing long-term health problems.  The EPA proposes to set a water standard of 56 ppb for perchlorate, which is completely insufficient.  For comparison, the state of Massachusetts requires water utilities to treat water with more than 2 parts per billion, and advocates insist that 1 part per billion is a scientifically sound, safer limit.  Advocates’ concerns are backed up by the EPA’s own research, which confirms that perchlorate is harmful to the thyroid during pregnancy and infancy.  Perchlorate blocks the thyroid’s ability to take up iodine and alters thyroid hormones.  Exposure to perchlorate during short periods of pregnancy can impair fetal brain development and have lasting effects on children’s attention, intelligence and behavior.
Sonya Lunder
Sierra Club
September 4, 2019

Corps Ready to Excavate Under Public Safety Bldg. Foundation

American University is committed to keeping our community informed on the status of the remediation efforts being performed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) within the boundaries of the Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site (SVFUDS) and, specifically, work that involves AU property ... The project history goes back to 1917 - 1918, when over 661 acres in northwest Washington, including the AU campus, were used by the U.S. government and the U.S. Army to support the war effort as a site to develop and test chemical agents, weapons, and munitions ... In the early 1990s, in an adjacent Spring Valley neighborhood, the discovery of materials left over from that research and testing resulted in the USACE returning to the area to conduct extensive environmental testing and cleanup operations ... Currently, there are two locations where USACE is conducting remediation efforts.  One is an off-campus residential property and an adjacent lot owned by AU at 4825 and 4835 Glenbrook Road.  The other location is on the south side of campus where the former Public Safety Building once stood ... The former Public Safety Building, which stood on the south side of campus near Fletcher Gate, was demolished in 2017 ... Previous USACE activities in this area confirmed the presence of some AUES related glassware and contaminated soil.  With the building removed from the site, USACE will test the underlying soil, and then proceed to remove and replace it, if necessary.
Dan Nichols, Asst. VP
American University
September 27, 2019

Waiting to look under Public Safety Bldg foundation

Between 2002 and 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers excavated debris from around the former Public Safety Building.  This area is referred to as the former Lot 18 disposal area.  In 2006, the debris from Lot 18 was found extending toward the Public Safety Building ... With work plans in place, excavations around the PSB were conducted from June 2008 to June 2010.  Contaminated soil and some suspected AUES-related glassware, several munition debris items, and one intact munition item were removed from around the building’s foundation ... The Army Corps’ current goal is to ensure that no suspected AUES debris continued under the PSB foundation ... Since AU had separate plans to remove the old building, the Army Corps is taking this opportunity to investigate the soil underneath the former building and remove any contamination encountered ... The team’s efforts to remove the cement foundation slab of the former Public Safety Building, investigate the soils underneath the foundation, and remove any potentially contaminated soils are tentatively scheduled to begin in the fall.  The team began mobilizing this summer for set up and personnel trainings.  The work is anticipated to take 2 - 4 months to complete.
US Army Corps of Engineers
PSB Fact Sheet
September 11, 2019

Public Safety Bldg foundation cross section (pg. 15)

Medical Experts Confirm There's No Safe Level for Perchlorate

EPA [wants] to set a drinking water limit for perchlorate that treats a loss of two IQ points as a "no-effect level."  The Trump EPA is proposing to set the enforceable drinking water Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 56 parts per billion (ppb) ... In 2016 NRDC sued EPA to set a health-protective drinking water standard for perchlorate ... Fifty pediatricians and other doctors, health scientists, and environmental advocates joined together to tell EPA Administrator Wheeler that, "The EPA proposal for this widespread and hazardous drinking water contaminant is deeply concerning ... We urge the agency to establish a standard based on the best available science" ... In addition, NRDC submitted lengthy detailed technical-legal comments to EPA letting it know that we are strongly opposed to its proposal ... EPA’s proposal fails to meet the legal requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).  This unlawful proposal should be withdrawn, and without any more delays EPA should set an enforceable drinking water standard of 1 - 2 ppb ... Perchlorate is found in the water at almost 70 percent (248) of military installations that have been tested.
Jennifer Sass
National Resources Defense Council
August 26, 2019

EPA proposes 56 ppb limit for perchlorate (pg. 7)

Extensive research demonstrates that exposure to perchlorate disrupts the thyroid hormone balance, thus posing a risk to the fetus and the young child.  Fetal and childhood exposure to perchlorate can impair cognitive development, which can cause lifelong harmful consequences.  Several states have set legal standards and public-health benchmarks for perchlorate in water.  The most protective regulation is in Massachusetts, which set a legal limit of 2 ppb.  In 2015, California published a public health goal value of 1 ppb for perchlorate in drinking water, which accompanies a legal maximum contaminant level of 6 ppb for perchlorate ... EWG is especially concerned that the EPA is considering withdrawing the agency’s 2011 determination to set a national drinking water standard for perchlorate ... EWG urges the EPA to incorporate into its revised perchlorate standard considerations of a wide variety of neurodevelopmental risks due to perchlorate, such as changes in behavior and learning, motor development and control, and emotions – the type of adverse effects that may be independent of alterations more readily measured by IQ.
Olga V. Naidenko, Ph.D.
Environmental Working Group
August 26, 2019

Groundwater dispute is paused at Tier 2 (pg. 6)

The agency proposes to set a perchlorate MCL at 56 ppb, nearly 4 times what EPA previously said is safe in its previous Lifetime Health Advisory.  The agency further stated that it may set a standard as high as 90 ppb, six times higher than its health advisory, and even proposed the possibility of establishing no standard at all ... Not only is EPA’s proposal a clear threat to the health of millions of people, it is also a manifest violation of the SDWA.  The Act requires EPA to use the “best available peer reviewed science” (SDWA §1412) ... EPA solicited the peer review and advice of the Science Advisory Board (SAB), as required by the SDWA.  But then EPA explicitly decided not to follow some of the most important recommendations of the SAB.  The best available science, as recommended by the SAB, requires consideration of multiple lines of evidence ... EPA should set the MCL Goal at zero based on the extensive evidence of harm at extremely low doses, the lack of a clear threshold for these effects, and the need for an adequate margin of safety to protect the most vulnerable populations, as required by the SDWA.
50 Medical Experts
Letter to EPA
August 26, 2019

EPA's Long-Awaited Perchlorate Standard Will Make You Sick

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a proposed standard to limit perchlorate in drinking water that will gravely threaten public health.  The agency’s plan comes after a decade of delay and a lawsuit by NRDC compelling it to set a standard.  Perchlorate, a toxic chemical that is a component of rocket fuel [and explosives], has been detected in the drinking water systems that serve up to 16.6 millions Americans.  Even at low levels, it can present serious health risks to children and pregnant women.  The following is a statement by Erik Olson, senior director for Health and Food at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

    "... Millions of Americans will be at risk of exposure to dangerous levels of this toxic chemical in their drinking water.  Fetuses and infants are especially vulnerable to harm from perchlorate.  EPA has more than tripled the amount of perchlorate it now recommends allowing in water.  Scientists recommend a limit that is 10 to more than 50 times lower than what the agency is proposing ...”

EPA is proposing a standard of 56 parts per billion [ppb] — more than 3 times its own previous limit of 15 ppb.  State standards based on scientists’ recommendations set the limit dramatically lower — 2 ppb (Massachusetts) and 6 ppb (California).  Perchlorate impairs hormone production critical to brain development.  It has been widely used by the military and defense industries ... It is highly soluble in water, and can move quickly into ground and surface water when it contaminates soil.  The EPA has revised drinking water standards since the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, but this is the first new standard the agency is putting forward for an unregulated contaminant in more than 23 years. 
Anne Hawke
NRDC
May 23, 2019

 EPA's proposed perchorate standard (5/23/19)

Agency Abandons Peer-Review
Process at Behest of Big Water
EPA’s scientists developed a sophisticated model that considers the impact of perchlorate on the development of the fetal brain in the first trimester when the fetus is particularly vulnerable to the chemical’s disruption of the proper function of the maternal thyroid gland ... In April, a consulting firm published a study critiquing EPA’s model.  The authors acknowledged the model as a valuable research tool but did not think it is sufficient to use in regulatory decision-making due to uncertainties. Therefore, the authors concluded that EPA should discard the peer-reviewed model and rely on a 14-year old calculation of a “safe dose” that does not consider the latest scientific evidence and has even greater uncertainties ... In 2016, EPA developed a Biologically-Based Dose Response Model (BBDR) that focused on the third trimester and breast-fed infants.  A peer review panel, convened by the agency, provided positive feedback but challenged the agency to focus on the first trimester when the fetus is most vulnerable to hypothyroxinemia.

In 2017, EPA rose to the challenge and refined the BBDR model for the first trimester after conducting a rigorous review of the science.  It also drew on five distinct children studies showing a quantitative relationship between perchlorate exposure, low [levels of a thyroid hormone known as "free T4" or] fT4 and harm to the developing brain ... In March 2018, the panel gave what amounts to high praise coming from independent scientists convened to be critical of the agency’s work ... The American Water Works Association, a 501c(3) technical and education organization representing drinking water professionals and utilities that would be affected by the rule, funded a consulting firm, Ramboll, to evaluate EPA’s model. 

The authors of the report ... proposed ignoring new, compelling evidence that perchlorate exposure during pregnancy harms the developing brain.  Instead, they called for EPA to use an RfD [reference dose] developed in 2005 that was estimated using a study of healthy non-pregnant adults ... The authors’ conclusion is at direct odds with those made by EPA’s independent peer-review panel through a multi-year transparent public process, which acknowledged the uncertainties but deemed them adequately addressed by the agency’s model.  The recommendations appear to be an unrealistic demand for perfection.  EPA’s model represents the “best-available, peer reviewed science,” which the Safe Drinking Water Act requires EPA to base its decisions upon ... Therefore, based on our calculations, the RfD should be 0.03 µg/kg-bw/day – about 20 times more protective than the current reference dose.

Tom Neltner

EDF Blog

May 7, 2019 

AWWA groundwater policy statement