EPA Won't Remove Rocket Fuel From Drinking Water

EPA Won't Remove Rocket Fuel From Drinking Water

www.huffingtonpost.com

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...

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."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Isn’t the EPA's job to protect the health of US citizens?
Sounds like they are saying its not cost effective enough to clean this up.

The Pentagon could face liability if the EPA enforces standards which would keep this contaminant out of US drinking systems.

The Pentagon claims it has done nothing to persuade the EPA's determination.

But of course when you look for who stands to benefit the most from keeping the current Rocket-Fuel contaminated water-supply standards and avoiding costly lawsuits...
the Pentagon looks suspicious.


www.huffingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Yes, and it isn't like the average Joe can just test their water for perchlorate levels to determine if they think it is safe for consumption. We have to rely on the EPA and they obviously don't care about our safety.

Perchlorate is also a key fertilizer ingredient.

Rocket fuel vs fertilizer... you decide which is the more likely source of contamination!

reply to post by 44soulslayer


yes fertilizers have been a big problem for decades as it has seeped into the underground aquifers and polluted the water supply. I don't think there is much they can do about it.

Maybe the reason they are not so worried about removing it, is that it is well documented to be naturally occuring, and that any removal effort would therefore be a waste of resources.

Natural Formation of Perchlorates

There are several well-documented mechanisms for natural formation of perchlorate. Involving ozone or hydroxyl radicals as oxidizer for sodium chloride from the sea and are somewhat similar to the formation processes of iodates also present in the atmosphere.

As most perchlorates are readily soluble in water, an accumulation of perchlorates in the environment only occurs in arid areas with little or no rainfall. It is known since the beginning of the 20th century that the Atacama Desert not only contains large amounts of nitrates but also trace amounts of perchlorates. The concentration varies but is in the mg/kg range. The dry south west of the United States also shows accumulation of perchlorates. With the use of nitrates from the Atacama Desert, so called Chile saltpeter as fertilizer the chlorates were also distributed into the environment. As the Chile saltpeter was mostly substituted by nitrates produced by the Haber Bosch process, which contains no perchlorates this source of perchlorates nearly vanished.

In 2006 a mechanism for the formation of perchlorates was proposed which is particularly apropos to the discovery of perchlorate at the Mars Phoenix lander site. It was shown that soils with high concentrations of natural salts could have some of their chloride converted to perchlorate in the presence of sunlight and/or ultraviolet light. The mechanism was reproduced in the lab using chloride rich soils from Death Valley.

From en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by keeb333


Lots of things, occur naturally, like the deadly Poison in apple seeds-Aresnic. And big tigers, Doesnt mean that it wont do you any harm



[edit on 23-9-2008 by monkeybus]

Originally posted by monkeybus
reply to post by keeb333

 

Lots of things, occur naturally, like the deadly Poison in apple seeds-Aresnic. And big tigers, Doesnt mean that it wont do you any harm



[edit on 23-9-2008 by monkeybus]

Right, but the EPA is not trying to clean up either of those things, either.

I'm not saying that perchlorate is not harmful, just that it would be impractical, if not impossible, to completely eliminate it from the environment.