Senator Feinstein Advocates for Perchlorate Clean-up

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is pursuing federal legislation that would help protect the nation's food and water supplies from perchlorate, the explosive compound in rocket-fuel. In November 2004, the Food and Drug Administration released a survey of supermarkets and farms that showed the chemical was in almost all of the milk and lettuce it sampled nationally.

Feinstein proposed legislation that would create a multi-agency perchlorate cleanup task force, spend $200 million to identify and clean up perchlorate sources in California, and provide grants for technologies to clean up perchlorate pollution. She also plans to seek a new federal limit for perchlorate in drinking water and hold perchlorate polluters responsible for cleanup efforts.

"It is imperative that we reduce the perchlorate in our drinking water and protect Californians, especially pregnant women, the unborn, infants, and young children from this threat to their health," Feinstein said in a press release.

A largely unstudied compound, perchlorate at high doses can disrupt thyroid function, although scientists and health officials said the levels being detected nationally should not harm healthy adults. Because it can retard development, thyroid disruption is especially dangerous for children and nursing infants.

In the wake of the FDA findings, the National Academies on Science was preparing a study to help set toxicity levels for perchlorate. No "allowable limits" currently exist for perchlorate at the federal level, though California has set a safety level of 6 parts per billion.

In 2004, Senator Feinstein secured $2.775 million in appropriations funding to research the scope of perchlorate contamination and to clean up some of the 350 drinking water sources that have been contaminated in California (however, it costs about $1 million per well to clean up perchlorate damage). Senator Feinstein secured an additional $6.5 million in perchlorate cleanup moneys as part of the Defense Department's annual funding bill. Defense Department contractors used perchlorate extensively in the 1950's and 1960's.

Some of the nation's worst perchlorate contamination is in Feinsteins state, where the compound has been found in more than 350 drinking water sources. The Colorado River's Imperial Valley in southern California, a major source of fruits and vegetables for the United States in winter, is among the biggest sources of perchlorate contamination.

"This is not just a California problem," said Feinstein. "It is a national problem."