EPA opts against limits on water contaminant
WASHINGTON» The Trump administration will not impose any limits on perchlorate, a toxic chemical compound that contaminates water and has been linked to fetal and infant brain damage, according to two Environmental Protection Agency staff members familiar with the decision.
The decision by Andrew Wheeler, administrator of the EPA, appears to defy a court order that required the agency to establish a safe drinking-water standard for the chemical by the end of June. The policy, which acknowledges that exposure to high levels of perchlorate can cause IQ damage but opts nevertheless not to limit it, could set a precedent for the regulation of other chemicals, people familiar with the matter said.
The chemical — which is used in rocket fuel, among other applications — has been under study for more than a decade, but because contamination is widespread, regulations have been difficult.
In 2011, the Obama administration announced it planned to regulate perchlorate for the first time, reversing a decision by the George W. Bush administration not to control it. But the Defense Department and military contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have waged aggressive efforts to block controls, and the fight has dragged on.
According to the staff members, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about agency decisions, the EPA intends in the coming days to send a federal register notice to the White House for review that will declare it is “not in the public interest” to regulate the chemical.
Andrea Woods, a spokeswoman for the
EPA, said in a statement that the agency had not yet made a final decision on perchlorate. “Any information that is shared or reported now would be premature, inappropriate and would be prejudging the formal rule-making process,” she said.
Woods said the final rule would be sent to the Office of Management and Budget for interagency review, adding “the agency expects to complete this step shortly.”
Perchlorate can occur naturally, but high concentrations have been found in at least 26 states, often near military installations where it has been used as an additive in rocket fuel, making propellants more reliable.
Research has shown that by interfering with the thyroid gland’s iodine uptake, perchlorate can stunt the production of hormones essential to the development of fetuses, infants and children.
The new policy will revoke the 2011 EPA finding that perchlorate presents serious health risks to 5 million to 16 million people and should be regulated. To justify doing so, the Trump administration will cite more recent analyses claiming concentrations of the chemical in water must be at higher levels than previously thought to be considered unsafe.
In addition, because states such as California and Massachusetts regulated the chemical in the absence of federal action, the EPA will say few public water systems now contain perchlorate at high levels, so the costs of nationwide monitoring would outweigh the benefits, the sources said.
“The agency has determined that perchlorate does not occur with a frequency and at levels of public health concern, and that regulation of perchlorate does not present a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public water systems,” the draft policy reads.
In public comments, the Perchlorate Study Group, a coalition of aerospace contractors including Aerojet Rocketdyne, American Pacific Corp., Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, strongly urged the EPA to withdraw its 2011 determination because “perchlorate does not occur with a frequency and at levels of public health concern” in public water systems.
The decision is the latest in a string of Trump administration regulatory actions that weaken toxic chemical regulations, often against the advice of EPA’s own experts, in ways favored by the chemical industry.
Last year the administration announced it would not ban chlorpyrifos, a widely used pesticide that its own experts linked to serious health problems in children. It also opted to restrict, rather than ban, asbestos, a known carcinogen, despite urging by EPA scientists and lawyers to ban it outright like most other industrialized nations.
“This is all of a piece,” said Rena Steinzor, a law professor at the University of Maryland. “You can draw a line between denial of science on climate change, denial of science on coronavirus, and denial of science in the drinking water context. It’s all the same issue.
“They’re saying, ‘We don’t care what the research says.’ ”
In 2011, the Obama administration issued an official finding that worrisome levels of perchlorate had been detected in enough public water systems to warrant regulation, and the EPA announced the agency’s intention to set limits.