In late September, outgoing California Gov. Gray
Davis signed two bills into law to protect drinking water supplies
from perchlorate, a toxic chemical used in rocket fuel and
explosives (HCN, 4/28/03: Cold War toxin seeps into Western water).
It could be 2008 before the federal Environmental Protection Agency
sets a maximum contaminant level for perchlorate, which can disrupt
hormone production and harm developing fetuses, infants and nursing
mothers. In the meantime, states are largely left to deal with the
problem on their own.
“We’re hoping these laws
are a start,” says Liz Kanter of the California State Water
Resources Control Board. “Perchlorate is one of the big, bad
water pollutants and we need to get a handle on it.”
Under the new laws, the state Department of Toxic Substances
Control is required to develop a plan for cleaning up perchlorate
contamination by 2006. But the laws also put some of the onus on
military installations, chemical companies and other polluters;
they would order anyone who disposed of the chemical after 1950 to
report to the State Water Resources Control Board. Polluters are
also responsible for replacing contaminated water with clean
supplies.
“It’s far cheaper to provide clean
drinking water than to have class action suits,” says state
Department of Toxic Substances spokesman Ron Baker.
But
the new bills do not require the U.S. Department of Defense —
which is pushing for exemption from cleanup liability at the
federal level — to report sites where perchlorate is
presently used, or where it may be used in the
future.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline State picks up federal slack on perchlorate.
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