WASHINGTON — The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under pressure from the White House and the Pentagon, is expected to rule as early as September 22 that it will not set a drinking water safety standard for the rocket fuel and fireworks chemical perchlorate, according to a September 22 Washington Post article.

The EPA has maintained that perchlorate, which has been linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women, newborns and young children, poses developmental health risks to humans. Earlier this year, the EPA announced that perchlorate, which also is naturally occurring, was included on its most recent Contaminant Candidate List (CCL 3), as WaterTech Online™ reported. The CCL 3 includes possible drinking water contaminants that may need to be regulated to ensure the protection of drinking water.

The EPA’s efforts to help determine if regulation of perchlorate in drinking water would “meaningfully” reduce risks to human health has faced opposition from the Bush administration for years. The Washington Post reported: “According to a near-final document obtained by The Washington Post, the EPA’s ‘preliminary regulatory determination’ — which was extensively edited by White House officials — marks the final step in a six-year-old battle between career EPA scientists who advocate regulating the chemical and White House and Pentagon officials who oppose it.”

The document estimates that up to 16.6 million Americans are exposed to perchlorate at a level many scientists consider unsafe. Independent researchers, using federal and state data, put the number at 20 million to 40 million, the article said.

In the EPA’s proposed rule, which was heavily edited by officials of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the maximum allowable perchlorate contamination level is 15 parts per billion (ppb), or 15 times the EPA 2002 suggested level of 1 ppb. Additionally, in the new rule, the Bush administration “eliminated key passages and asked the EPA to use a new computer modeling approach to calculate the chemical’s risks,” the Post reported.

US lawmakers, independent scientists and advocacy groups have been calling for a national drinking water limit for perchlorate. “They [the OMB] have distorted the science to such an extent that they can justify not regulating [perchlorate],” Robert Zoeller, a University of Massachusetts professor who specializes in thyroid hormone and brain development and has a copy of the EPA proposal, told The Washington Post.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has endorsed legislation requiring the EPA to set a standard for the chemical and to monitor perchlorate in drinking water. “Perchlorate has been a serious, persistent and widespread problem which threatens the health of our families, especially our children. For the Bush EPA to walk away from this problem and shrug off this danger is, in my view, unforgivable and immoral,” Boxer said in the article.