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NY Times, May 15, 2020
E.P.A. Opts Against Limits on Water Contaminant Tied to Fetal Damage
By Lisa Friedman
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, the administrator of the E.P.A., 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
I.Q. damage but opts nevertheless not to limit it, could also 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 that 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 E.P.A.
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 E.P.A., 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 rulemaking process,”
she said.
Ms. 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.” She did not answer questions about the
court order.
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 E.P.A. finding that perchlorate
presents serious health risks to between 5 million and 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 in order to be
considered unsafe.
In addition, because states like California and Massachusetts regulated
the chemical in the absence of federal action, the E.P.A. will say few
public water systems now contain perchlorate at high levels, so the
costs of nationwide monitoring would outweigh the benefits, the people
who have viewed the rule 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, according to the staff members.
In public comments, the Perchlorate Study Group, a coalition made up of
aerospace contractors including Aerojet Rocketdyne, American Pacific
Corporation, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems,
had strongly urged the E.P.A. 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 E.P.A.’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 E.P.A. 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 2008, the Bush administration said it would not set limits on the
chemical. One year later, the Obama administration moved to reverse
course. It issued a recommendation to states that 15 micrograms per
liter is the highest concentration of perchlorate in water that the most
sensitive populations, like pregnant women, should ingest.
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 E.P.A. announced the agency’s
intention to set limits.
The Obama administration dragged its feet, though, and the Natural
Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, sued. Moving ahead
with regulation ultimately fell to the Trump administration and, in
2018, the E.P.A. agreed to a court settlement requiring a final standard
on perchlorate. The court granted the administration extensions, and a
final standard must be issued by June.
Last year the E.P.A. did propose federal regulation of perchlorate but
it suggested a limit of 56 micrograms per liter, more than three times
higher than what the E.P.A. had previously determined to be safe.
It also asked for comments from the public on an even higher threshold
of 90 micrograms per liter, as well as whether to abandon plans for
regulations altogether.
The final rule described by the staff members shows that the
administration chose the most extreme option.
In doing so, the policy notes that the idea of setting a limit for 56
micrograms per liter was based on studies showing that it could avoid an
average I.Q. loss of two points among babies of iodine-deficient
pregnant women.
Even an exposure of 18 micrograms per liter, slightly above the current
federal recommendation, would amount to an average I.Q. loss of one
point. Critics of the policy said the E.P.A. was implicitly accepting
that those health outcomes are not considered adverse health effects,
and that the decision could affect the future regulation of other chemicals.
“Not only is E.P.A. acting in defiance of a court order and the law,
it’s setting a terrible precedent by ignoring much of the science and
allowing such a high level of perchlorate in tap water that it
acknowledges is associated with an average 2-point I.Q. loss in exposed
kids,” said Erik Olson, senior strategic director of health and food at
the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Ms. Woods, the E.P.A. spokeswoman, declined to respond to a question
about I.Q. damage from perchlorate.
Chemical industry representatives did not respond immediately to a
request to discuss the E.P.A. policy. But in public comments to the
agency, they, along with some state water districts and military
contractors, urged the E.P.A. to not regulate perchlorate.
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