A California city that has had to close seven of its 15 public drinking water wells because of perchlorate contamination is not pleased with USEPA's decision this week to not add perchlorate to a list of about 90 contaminants the agency now regulates under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Brad Baxter, director of the Rialto Public Works Department in California, said USEPA's decision will hinder the city from getting funding to help clean up the rocket fuel component from the area's groundwater. "Without an MCL (maximum contaminant level), we will miss opportunities to obtain funding from other agencies, such as the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Bureau of Reclamation," Baxter said, noting that an established MCL would allow for state revolving fund loans and state Proposition 50 funds, among other things. "It's a failure of USEPA not to recognize this."

Baxter said the loss of wells, along with an ongoing drought, has caused a water crisis in his city and surrounding areas of San Bernardino County. "The lack of water puts us on hold as a community to create jobs," he said. The plume of contamination has also spread to the nearby cities of Fontana and Colton, resulting in additional well shutdowns there.

One bright spot this week, however, Baxter noted, is that USEPA has ordered two companies suspected of contaminating Rialto's groundwater decades ago, Emhart Industries Inc. and Goodrich Corporation, to conduct an investigation to determine if they are the sources of the contamination. Emhart manufactured photoflash flares and munitions, and Goodrich tested and produced rocket motors at the site in the 1950s and '60s.

The DoD, according to a recent Associated Press report, has agreed to help pay costs to clean up the chemical in San Bernardino County's water supplies, including the wells in Rialto, Fontana and Colton. DoD is considered by many to be the main culprit of perchlorate contamination because a number of wartime munitions manufacturers were located in Rialto in the 1940s.

Of 60 contaminants now under consideration for rulemaking, USEPA announced that nine on the Contaminant Candidate List would not be regulated and that the remaining 51 would continue to be studied.

The decisions were announced this week as part of USEPA's Six-Year Review of rulemaking.

The only candidate being considered for revision under the agency's latest review is the Total Coliform Rule. USEPA also proposed new rules for the Disinfectants/Disinfection By-products and Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment rules.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has been a vocal critic of the lack of perchlorate regulations, called USEPA's perchlorate decision "very troubling," and said she would demand an explanation. California's other senator, Barbara Boxer, in March introduced legislation to protect drinking water from perchlorate contamination by July 1, 2004. Under USEPA's current schedule, 2006 is the earliest date a standard would be finalized, Boxer, a Democrat, said.

Some environmental organizations, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Working Group, also have criticized USEPA for not opting to place perchlorate on the list for consideration.

In April a study by the Environmental Working Group revealed high levels of perchlorate in some winter lettuce irrigated by Colorado River water. According to the report, four of 22 lettuce samples had more than 30 micrograms/L of perchlorate. "The Bush Administration's decision not to pursue tougher regulations on rocket fuel and many other toxins in drinking water is an outrageous betrayal of public health to benefit defense contractors, chemical companies, the agriculture industry and other big-money special interests," EWG said.

Perchlorate in recent years has contaminated drinking water wells in 22 states, shutting down nearly 300 wells in California alone. In addition to Rialto, the San Martin area of Santa Clara County is dealing with a 7-mile-long plume that has contaminated 235 private wells. Olin Corp., which reportedly claims responsibility for the San Martin contamination, is distributing free bottled water to area residents whose wells are contaminated.

A Reuters news story reported last month that aerospace giant Boeing Co. has been ordered by California to find out if a rocket fuel component from a field laboratory contaminated a well at a nearby school. The Rocketdyne laboratory is located about 15 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Perchlorate has also been the basis for several lawsuits, including one in California in which 1,000 people are suing Lockheed Martin for contamination at a former rocket-engine testing facility that closed in the 1970s.

Perchlorate also has been found in the lower Colorado River, a main drinking water source for millions of people in the Southwest. It is also showing up in groundwater wells in Long Island, N.Y., and elsewhere. A former rocket-fuel plant operated by Kerr-McGee Corp. outside Las Vegas is reportedly the largest single source of perchlorate contamination in the US.

USEPA has set a preliminary safety level of 1 microgram/L for perchlorate and is continuing to study it for a possible formal rulemaking in the future. The agency, which could make a decision by the end of this year, has developed a draft toxicological review and risk characterization and has funded the National Academies of Sciences to review that draft. It is also requiring certain utilities to monitor for perchlorate in their source water in order to develop an occurrence database.

California is currently working on a state standard to regulate perchlorate, proposing a safe level in drinking water of 2 to 6 micrograms/L by 2004.

Tom Curtis, AWWA's deputy executive director for Government Affairs, said while USEPA's "pace of activity may be frustrating to many, decisions to regulate, and then set an actual standard, must always be based on the best available science, not on emotion."