No need to rid drinking water of rocket fuel - EPA

[donco6]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency has decided there's no need to rid drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that has fouled public water supplies around the country.

Sen. Barbara Boxer said the EPA was walking away from "a widespread contamination problem."

EPA reached the conclusion in a draft regulatory document not yet made public but reviewed Monday by The Associated Press.

The ingredient, perchlorate, has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states at levels high enough to interfere with thyroid function and pose developmental health risks, particularly for babies and fetuses, according to some scientists.

The EPA document says that mandating a clean-up level for perchlorate would not result in a "meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/09/22/rocket.fuel.epa.ap/index.html

[JeffR]

1. The first overt sign of the dickishness of the Bush misAdministration

was the furor over arsenic standards in drinking water, IIRC.

Looks as though it's all come full circle...

[underpants]

2. I'd throw in their apologizing to the Chinese for knocking OUR spyplane out of the air

But then who are we to tell our bosses what to do? :shrug: