Rocket Fuel a Growing Concern for Cape Cod

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http://ens-news.com/ens/may2003/2003-05-20-09.asp#anchor3

 

Rocket Fuel a Growing Concern for Cape Cod

 

BOSTON, Massachusetts, May 20, 2003 (ENS) - Levels of perchlorate - a suspected

carcinogen used in rocket fuel - have more than doubled in private well waters

outside of the Defense Department's Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, according to

Massachusetts state officials.

In documents released Monday by New England Public Employees for Environmental

Responsibility (New England PEER), state officials detail that the military is

responsible for the increased perchlorate levels and must address the problem.

Officials with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection sent a

" Notice of Responsibility " last week to the U.S. Army Environmental Center at

Camp Edwards. The notice cites new " validated analytical data " showing that the

levels of perchlorate are above the state standard and directs the Army to

submit a cleanup plan by June 10, 2003.

The state officials warned that " failure to meet this deadline may result in

enforcement actions by the Department. " Clean up could take some five years.

The new perchlorate levels reported by the Army to DEP are 1.75 parts per

billion (ppb) - well above the state standard of 1 ppb. Massachusetts set its

standard based on the premise that consuming even one glass of contaminated

water could be harmful to a pregnant woman or a small child.

Perchlorate is a suspected carcinogen that affects thyroid function.

The new perchlorate levels are more than double the previous high level of 0.74

ppb for the same area, suggesting that the chemical plume is migrating farther

into residential areas surrounding the base.

Environmentalists say the military is not addressing the issue of perchlorate

contamination even though there is increasing evidence of contamination near

military bases across the country.

They argue that despite congressional hearings over the past two months, Bush

administration officials at the Pentagon and the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA) have delayed setting a national standard for the chemical.

" The Pentagon is playing hide-and-go-seek with the public's health, " said New

England PEER Director Kyla Bennett, a biologist who formerly worked in EPA's New

England regional office. " Not just in Massachusetts but across the country, the

Pentagon has been throwing up every possible obstruction to an honest assessment

and remediation of what has become a perchlorate plague. "

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