What is contaminating Rancho Cordova's water?

There are three identified contaminants from Aerojet that are monitored on a
monthly basis and provide a criteria for shutting down wells: perchlorate,
TCE, UDMH and NDMA.

There are conceivably other unidentified contaminants as
well, but it is presumed that strict regulation of perchlorate, TCE, and
NDMA levels will adequately protect the public from any other undetected
chemicals. This is particularly true of perchlorate, which would arguably
travel faster and farther in groundwater than any other chemical originating
from Aerojet.

Starting in 1950 Aerojet-Rancho Cordova began working with a salt oxidizer
called perchlorate in its solid rockets. Perchlorate is similar to the
chlorate used in match heads.

Perchlorate's best understood health effect is inhibition of iodide uptake into the thyroid, with the human fetus and infant judged to be at least 10 times more vulnerable than adults. Adults store a roughly 100-day supply of thyroid hormone, while a fetus needs its
thyroid hormone "just-in-time" for optimal neural development.

Perchlorate's target in the thyroid is the sodium iodide symporter protein, which
scientists are currently discovering and defining in other tissues of the
body, so perchlorate's effects by this mechanism may not be limited to the
thyroid.

Perchlorate also persists in the skin and has a caffein-like affect
on calcium levels inside cells, with uncertain health effects. At high doses
perchlorate is presumed to affect the immune system by lowering white blood
cell counts (leukopenia) and even shutting down red blood cell production
(aplastic anemia). When patients are given perchlorate medicinally, the
first sign of an adverse reaction is a skin rash.

The flame-proof solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) began to be used extensively
at Aerojet around 1957. TCE is primarily a liver and nerve toxin -- it's
partly responsible for the toxic "high" of glue sniffing. Considerable
exposure is possible just through inhalation while showering. Chronic
exposure to TCE produces increased risk of liver, kidney, and bladder
cancer.

TCE was also part of the chemical mix that produced the Woburn
childhood leukemia cluster featured in the film "A Civil Action," although
other chemicals like arsenic and perhaps even NDMA were involved. On
aerospace sites perchlorate was used to burn waste TCE., and personal injury
attorneys in Redlands, California claim the resulting mixture of
perchlorate, TCE, and their combustion byproducts produced leukemia, brain
cancer, and multiple endocrine tumors. To date they have not publically
offered proof for these claims.

Unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine (UDMH) liquid rocket fuel was used in the
Titan II program at Aerojet starting in 1960. When exposed to the oxygen in
the air, UDMH converts into nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA.

NDMA is the most potent carcinogen in second-hand cigarette smoke, and is found in
high-protein foods like powdered milk, cheese, salami, smoked fish, and
beer, and is spontaneously generated by bacteria in the intestine when you
eat foods preserved with nitrites, for example luncheon meat.

It is also produced by chlorinating high-nitrate water. There is some reason to believe
that consuming NDMA in water is more risky than consuming it in food -- when
high-protein food is present in the stomach the liver is notified of NDMA's
probable presence and activates the appropriate enzymes to neutralize it.

NDMA can contribute to cancer in a wide variety of places in the body, but
its first targets are the liver and the lungs. A suspected metabolite of
NDMA also produced thyroid cancer, pituitary cancer, and leukemia in lab
animals.

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