Integrity of Science

Earlier this week, a special report in the Oregonian uncovered the recent efforts by the White House and Pentagon to stymie the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to recommend safe levels of perchlorate (a component in solid rocket fuel) for water. Alex Pulaski reports in "Pentagon pressured EPA on perchlorate" (part 2 of a 3 part series) that industry, financial, and political interests trumped the EPA's analysis (hat-tip to Joe DiGangi).

Under pressure from the U.S. Defense Department and contractors facing potential cleanup costs in the billions of dollars, the Bush administration in early 2003 ordered EPA scientists not to publicly discuss perchlorate pollution. The White House also took perchlorate risk analysis out of the EPA's hands and gave it to the National Academy of Sciences.

In presentations before the academy, the EPA maintained its position that perchlorate levels in drinking water should not exceed 1 ppb. A colonel representing the U.S. Air Force's environmental law staff, however, argued that the academy could safely adopt a standard as high as 200 ppb.

In early 2005, the EPA adopted the academy's conclusions on what constitutes a "safe dose" for humans, even though they translated to perchlorate drinking-water levels more than 20 times higher than the 1 ppb standard that the agency had last endorsed. In a rare step, the EPA placed the new dosage on its risk-information Web site without allowing public comment.

By raising the dosage bar to an equivalent of 24.5 ppb in drinking water, the agency cast doubt on whether it would ever establish a legal limit forcing cleanup of water supplies contaminated by perchlorate. The reason is that federal law requires such limits only when significant health benefits will result, and almost all water supplies fall below the threshold of 24.5 ppb.

To illustrate the difference, slightly more than half the wells tested in Morrow and Umatilla counties in 2003 had perchlorate levels higher than 1 ppb. But only one of the 133 wells showed perchlorate levels higher than 24.5 ppb.

The academy reference dose adopted by the EPA has come under fire from toxicologists in states considering adopting their own perchlorate limits in drinking water. They have questioned the validity of studies supporting the standard and the agency's refusal to accept public comment on it.

Considering the uproar that the "jet fuel in breast milk" story turned up across the country, this desire to smother the best science on perchlorate is unsurprising, and despicable.