HR: 09:48h
AN: H41K-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Perchlorate and Superfund Response to Uncertainty and the Geochemical Cycle
AU: * Mayer, K P
EM: mayer.kevin@epa.gov
AF: U.S Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, SFD-7-2 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105-3901,
AB: Perchlorate, a chemical that had been known both in nature and through synthesis since the nineteenth century, only emerged into the limelight as an environmental contaminant in 1997. US EPA's Superfund Program became involved in perchlorate issues in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to the chemical's presence mixed with other contaminants at cleanup sites. Relying largely on pharmaceutical studies primarily from the 1950s and 1960s, EPA scientists in 1992 made a provisional estimate of toxicity and estimated that about 4 micrograms per liter (parts per billion or ppb) in drinking water would be protective. "Uncertainty factors" were incorporated to address for several identified information gaps. Results of new animal and human studies funded by the Defense Department and industry in the late 1990s shifted the concern from affects on adults with unhealthy thyroids to the potential developmental health risks to infants and children. EPA's January, 2002, draft toxicity assessment was referred to a committee of the National Research Council. In January, 2005, this committee recommended a "reference dose" based primarily on human clinical data. Many decisions remain on interpretation of the scientific recommendations for regulatory applications. After California's 1997 development of an analytical method to detect perchlorate in water to 4 ppb, EPA and state officials quickly discovered this chemical at 10 Superfund sites in the Pacific Southwest Region and at more than 30 other locations in California, Arizona and Nevada. Even before current research on the potential for natural sources of this anion, reported detections of perchlorate were investigated with reasonable care and appropriate skepticism. A brief overview of the search for likely sources of perchlorate detected in California water supplies is presented from a regional Superfund perspective. Some are clearly anthropogenic and others may be unrelated to industrial or disposal practices. Currently, there is no Federal standard for perchlorate. In March, 2004, California established Public Health Goal of 6 ppb in drinking water and a drinking water standard may be promulgated by November 2007. Seven other states have advisory levels ranging from 1 to 51 ppb.
UR: http://www.epa.gov/fedfac/documents/perchlorate.htm
DE: 1831 Groundwater quality
DE: 1834 Human impacts
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting