Gov. Jerry Brown in October vowed a thorough review of unnecessary state regulations that were earning California an anti-business rap. Brown could start by stopping a proposed new rule on regulating the level of perchlorate in drinking water.
The health concern with perchlorate is that it blocks iodine in the diet needed by unborns and infants for normal educational development.
Consider the following:
The California Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule would reduce perchlorate levels in drinking water from a tiny six parts per billion to one part – or one teaspoon of water in an Olympic-size swimming pool. The National Academy of Sciences says perchlorate is safe in drinking water at 245 parts per billion.
There is no common sense in regulated perchlorate levels in drinking water. As Bill Romanelli of the Perchlorate Information Bureau puts it: “We know that levels below 245 parts per billion (2,450 parts actually) have no measurable effect on the human body. The National Academy of Sciences predicts that adverse effects from perchlorate exposure would only come as levels exceed 14,000 parts per billion, and then only if that went on for years.” It’s highly improbable that someone would drink enough water to get an unsafe dose of perchlorate. The proposed Cal EPA level is lower than the level of perchlorate in foods and other substances like nitrates that can also block iodine. The new standard is also less than the level at which the perchlorate molecule occurs in nature nearly everywhere.
Cal EPA’s new rule would have no proven health benefits to unborns or infants, because “in over 60 years of research there has not been any reported adverse effects on human health from exposure to environmental levels of perchlorate” according to toxicologist Dr. Richard Pleus.
Iodine deficiency can be corrected by use of cheap iodized table salt, as has been done for decades. Iodized salt is recommended by the U.S. EPA’s Office of Inspector General as a way to avoid imposing billions of dollars of unneeded cleanup costs on California industries.
Most perchlorate studies have involved measuring levels in milk, blood or drinking water. Studies of health effects have been statistical extrapolations, not actual measures. There never has been a long-term study of whether educational deficits in children significantly narrowed in a community that reduced perchlorate levels in its drinking water.
The National Resources Defense Council, Clean Water Action and the Environmental Working Group support Cal EPA’s new rule. The NRDC is the same organization that filed a 2006 lawsuit in California to protect the delta smelt fish in the Sacramento Delta that a federal judge said was based on bogus science. The delta smelt case caused the California “drought” from 2007 to 2010. Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), has provided past funding for the Environmental Working Group. Clean Water Action is a group of self-described activists, lobbyists and community organizers in San Francisco.
Those opposed to more costly and unrealistic new standards are the Association of California Water Agencies, the East Bay Municipal Water District, the Riverside Public Utilities Department, San Bernardino County, the Golden State Water Co., the Perchlorate Study Group, the Partnership for Sound Science and Environmental Policy, the U.S. Department of Defense and numerous agricultural associations.
Cal EPA can impose this new rule unchecked by the state Legislature or courts while Brown is downsizing and consolidating state agencies. There are only low-level perchlorate cleanup sites left to justify the continued existence of bureaucracies that regulate perchlorate.
According to Romanelli, “Since average concentrations across the U.S. – where it’s been detected – are below 10 parts per billion according to U.S. EPA research, it is hard to comprehend how lowering the public health goal would offer any public health benefit.”
If Brown is going to dismantle redevelopment agencies and consolidate other state agencies, it is time to put a stop to a near-zero standard of perchlorate that will do nothing but protect bureaucratic turf.
Southern California is disproportionately affected. Of the 259 sites with perchlorate levels at or higher than six parts per billion in California, 245 are in Southern California. None of the sites exceeds the 245-part standard set by the National Academy of Sciences.
Low levels of perchlorate have not been proved to cause educationally impaired children to the degree that alcohol consumption during pregnancy has.
If Brown were smart, it would be a no-brainer to halt the new near-zero standard for perchlorate regulation, which has no health benefits and imposes huge costs on California industries. Water rates will go up and industries will be hit with huge unnecessary cleanup costs if the new rule is signed into law by the head of Cal EPA.
Wayne Lusvardi writes about energy and water policy for Calwatchdog. He lives in Pasadena.
