Time to Protect Public Health and Drinking Water is Now

As policymakers, it is our responsibility to ensure that the agencies in charge of protecting public health and our drinking water supplies are fulfilling their responsibilities. Unfortunately, for more than 10 years the EPA has allowed contamination caused by unregulated perchlorate to threaten both public health and our drinking water supplies. That is why I introduced H.R. 1747, legislation to require the EPA to establish a mandatory safe drinking water standard for perchlorate. I am proud this legislation passed the Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee. Further consideration is needed to prevent unnecessary risk to public health and our water supplies.

Perchlorate is an ingredient in rocket fuel, ninety percent of which is produced for use by the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA. It is extremely soluble and has been found in drinking water, food, groundwater, irrigation water, soil and human breast milk. EPA data shows that perchlorate is known to have contaminated at nearly 153 public water systems in 26 states.

Perchlorate presents a risk to human health in vulnerable populations, including pregnant women and children, as it blocks the ability of the thyroid to absorb iodine. Studies have shown that significant changes in thyroid hormone levels in humans who were exposed to perchlorate, including 43 million women who are high risk. More than 250,000 one year-olds are exposed to perchlorate above the government's safe dose from food sources alone. This is the equivalent of one in every 16 one year-olds in the country.

Since 2002, the Defense Department actively sought to exempt itself from state and Federal public health and environmental laws which protect drinking water supplies from chemical constituents of military munitions, including perchlorate. Meanwhile, the EPA has historically failed to exercise enforcement authority to undertake remedial actions to address perchlorate contamination at Department facilities that are listed on the Superfund National Priorities list. In the interim, the threat to children's health has continued to grow.

Without a standard our nation's drinking water supply will continue to be exposed to unnecessary risks. We must protect public health and drinking water supplies by establishing a national primary drinking water standard that is protective of vulnerable populations. I am proud that we took a step in a right direction with the Subcommittee passage of H.R. 1747, the Safe Drinking Water for Healthy Communities Act. H.R. 1747 would require EPA to regulate perchlorate levels in drinking water within 2.5 years of enactment.

I look forward to further consideration of this bill; any further delay in establishing a Federal drinking water standard could result in unnecessary public health risks and unacceptable losses of water and resources.

Comments

[jake106]

This is one of THE important issues of the 21st century. Not just protecting the water supply from contamination, but more fundamentally, securing enough water at all. I'm hoping that needs will drive us to accept desalination plants and complete cycle reclamation plants in the very near future. This business of draining all our lakes, reservoirs and rivers dry to supply major metropolis's with water can't last much longer.