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‘It’s
really one of the most massive pollution problems the water industry has
ever seen.’
— TIMOTHY
BRICK
Southern California
Metropolitan Water District
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STATE AND federal officials
are still debating how much risk perchlorate poses when ingested and what
limits should be set for the chemical, a process slowed partly by
lawsuits filed by defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, who worry
they could be on the hook for billions of dollars in cleanup costs.
Thousands of people have sued the companies
that once made or handled perchlorate, alleging years of drinking water
laced with the chemical have caused cancers and other illnesses.
1,000 SUE LOCKHEED
Adrienne Wise-Tates, 46, has had tumors of the
brain and ovaries, multiple cysts in her breasts, cancerous cells found
when she had a goiter removed and, most recently, an unknown mass in her
left kidney.
The mother of three blames the
perchlorate-tainted water she drank while growing up in Redlands. There,
70 miles east of Los Angeles, nearly 1,000 people are suing Lockheed
Martin over perchlorate pollution associated with a former rocket engine
testing facility that closed in the 1970s.
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“I played in the water,
drank the water, everything. The normal things a child does,” Wise-Tates said.
“Since it was so much in this area, in the water, that’s what I attribute
it to.”
Lockheed spokeswoman Gail Rymer said the
company is “vigorously” defending itself against the claims.
“We do not feel that anyone was harmed or has
been made ill as a result of our operations at the former Lockheed
Propulsion Co. site,” Rymer said.
BEYOND ROCKET FUEL
The oxygen-rich chemical interferes with the
way the body takes iodide into the thyroid and can disrupt how the gland
regulates metabolism. It’s unclear how much is dangerous.
Initially, it was thought perchlorate
pollution would be restricted to places where rocket fuel was made or
used. However, it’s since been tied to plants around the country that
made munitions, fireworks and even the charges that deploy airbags.
“Anything that explodes seems to be associated
with perchlorate,” said David Spath, chief of the division of drinking
water and environmental management for the California Department of
Health Services.
Along with explosives, naturally
perchlorate-rich fertilizer imported from Chile has contaminated wells on
New York’s Long Island, forcing some to close.
“We need to be able to say to people that this
is a problem, it is a big problem. It is moving rapidly. It is in 22
states and we need to address it,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
“We don’t need to panic, but we need to do it in a way that’s
cost-effective and makes sense.”
LEECHING INTO COLORADO RIVER
The single largest source of contamination is
a former Kerr-McGee Corp. rocket fuel plant outside Las Vegas.
For decades, waste water containing
perchlorate was left to seep into the ground, a company official said.
“There were probably 20-plus years when we didn’t
have the environmental awareness we have today,” said Pat Corbett, the
former plant manager who is now the company’s environmental technology
director.
The site still leaches as much as 900 pounds
of perchlorate a day into a wash that drains into the Colorado River, the
main water source for much of Arizona, southern California and southern
Nevada.
Across the nation, millions more eat
vegetables grown with Colorado River water. What risk the vegetables
could pose, if any, is unknown.
“It’s really one of the most massive pollution
problems the water industry has ever seen,” said Timothy Brick, a member
of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
EPA HAS TOUGH PROPOSAL
Across California, nearly 300 wells are
contaminated. Most are in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino
counties, where dozens of aerospace factories hummed during the Cold War.
California officials have proposed what they
consider a safe level of perchlorate of two to six parts per billion and
hope to set the nation’s first standard by 2004. However, Lockheed Martin
and Kerr-McGee forced the state to submit the draft recommendation to
further outside review, including by industry-picked experts, delaying
the process by months.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s draft
proposal is stricter: one part per billion.
Perchlorate in the Colorado River has been measured
as high as 9 parts per billion.
It will take years to discover the extent of
perchlorate contamination nationwide, and cleanup will take decades more,
to the consternation of people like Wise-Tates.
“I would just hope no one else has to go
through this, but I am sure they will, until they find some way to clean
up the water,” she said.
© 2003 Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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