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Senator Feinstein Urges EPA to Act Quickly on Establishing Perchlorate Drinking Water Standard
January 21, 2005
pdf version
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a standard for perchlorate in drinking water now that the National Research Council of the National Academies has issued its report, Health Implications of Perchlorate Ingestion. Senator Feinstein also plans to introduce legislation in the coming days to address the problem of perchlorate contamination in food and water supplies across the country. Senator Feinstein sent a letter to outgoing EPA Administrator Michael Leavitt today and is urging that his successor make setting a perchlorate drinking water standard a top priority. The text of the letter follows: January 21, 2005 The Honorable Michael Leavitt Dear Administrator Leavitt, In light of the recent publication of the National Academy of Sciences’ (NAS) study on the Health Implications of Perchlorate Ingestion, I am writing to request that the Environmental Protection Agency take immediate action to establish a drinking water standard for perchlorate. For over two years I have been asking the EPA to finalize a reference dose for perchlorate in order to establish a drinking water standard. The EPA has consistently responded that it could not do so until the NAS study was published. Now that the study has been published, the EPA has no reason to delay. It is my intent to introduce legislation in the 109 th Congress that would serve to address perchlorate contamination on a national level and require the EPA to promulgate a final federal drinking water standard by July 31, 2007 . I am aware of the customary timeline under the regulatory process. However, the EPA has been evaluating perchlorate as a contaminant for over 10 years and I am confident that it is prepared to move swiftly to establish a final standard by this date. I greatly appreciate your attention to this issue and hope that the EPA will do all it can to move forward with this request.
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