.....The perchlorate issue is on the front burner again, with the Defense Department now aggressively taking on the US Environmental Protection Agency.
.....A main story in today’s (March 2, 2003) New York Times outlines the acrimonious debate over the growing specter of ammonium perchlorate in groundwater. It has been used in 49 states and contamination has been detected in 30—yet perchlorate is still both unregulated and in use.
.....Ammonium perchlorate is an additive used by NASA and the Pentagon for rocket fuel and munitions since the 50s—but also by the pyrotechnics industry, automobile airbag inflators, and as an inert constituent in some fertilizers. It’s traditionally been disposed of by simply dissolving it in water and dumping it on the ground.
.....Contamination ranges from 1 part per billion (ppb) in Massachusetts to thousands of parts per million (ppm) in California.
.....An EPA push for an MCL of one part per billion in drinking water is being countered by the Pentagon and the munitions industry, which want an MCL of 200 parts per billion. That mark is interesting because, the Times article explains, “… it would probably exempt much of the contamination from cleanup, because most such contamination in the United States ranges from 4 to 100 parts per billion”.
.....Of course the bottom line is the bottom line—billions of dollars in cleanup costs are at stake. Consequently, the Pentagon, NASA, and the weapons industry are viciously attacking the report.
.....The EPA reports that, “although variations may have few effects on healthy adults, they may hurt the development of fetuses and young children.” Perchlorate can interfere with iodide uptake by the thyroid gland, thus decreasing the production of thyroid hormones, which are needed for pre- and postnatal growth and development, and normal body metabolism.