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NPR Morning Edition Perchlorate Stories

24 and 25 May 2004

DATE: May 24, 2004

*****
STEVE INSKEEP, host:

The state of California is fighting a battle against the chemical perchlorate,


which is used in rocket and missile fuels. The state's aerospace and Defense
companies, as well as the military, have used a lot of perchlorate since World
War II. And in recent years perchlorate has been turning up in California's
water supplies. The state has suggested that even tiny amounts are worrisome,
so communities have shut down wells, filed lawsuits and begun costly cleanup
efforts. But all of this is taking place without any good evidence that even
the most contaminated water has made anybody sick. NPR's Jon Hamilton has the
first of a two-part series on perchlorate in California.

JON HAMILTON reporting:

If there's anyplace in California where perchlorate might have been expected to


hurt people, it's Rancho Cordova. The city lies just east of Sacramento and
right next to one of the nation's worst perchlorate spills. Larry Ladd lives
here and has spent years looking for signs that the chemical has caused health
problems. He'll give a perchlorate tour to pretty much anyone who's
interested.

Mr. LARRY LADD: Ground zero would be on Hirschfeld Way which is right there.

HAMILTON: Ladd points to a well enclosed by a chain-link fence. It's well 13


which provided water to nearby homes until it was shut down in 1997. At the
time, California was telling communities they should be concerned if
perchlorate concentrations reached 18 parts per billion. Several months ago,
California announced a health goal of just six parts per billion. Ladd says
that by either standard well 13 was off the charts.

Mr. LADD: Well 13 has anywhere from 200 to 400 parts per billion. It's usually
like around 250, and that's--I've basically focused on the one-block street
adjacent to that well, well 13, and only houses you can see from that street.
You know, that's my study area.

HAMILTON: Ladd has delivered leaflets about perchlorate to every house in the
area. He's also gathered information on people who've reported certain health
problems. Ladd says his efforts have led him to at least one person whose
illnesses could be linked to perchlorate.
Mr. LADD: If anybody's been poisoned by perchlorate, it's been Andy
Pennington(ph) because he was the wrong guy at the wrong place at the wrong
time.

HAMILTON: Andrew Pennington lived just a few steps from well 13 back in the
1980s. He's moved to Texas since then and is suing the company blamed for
contaminating Rancho Cordova's water. Pennington agreed to a phone interview,
but didn't want it recorded.

He said that since leaving Rancho Cordova, he's had a series of health
problems, including thyroid cancer. Ladd thinks that's highly suspicious
because large quantities of perchlorate can affect the thyroid gland. But
Marilyn Underwood of the State Health Department says that in this case
scientific research isn't on Ladd's side.

Ms. MARILYN UNDERWOOD (State Health Department): All the looks that have
occurred so far both in animals and humans do not lead you to believe that
there would be such an effect on the thyroid that it would lead to thyroid
cancer.

HAMILTON: Or any other type of cancer. Perchlorate affects people by keeping


iodine from reaching the thyroid gland. Enough perchlorate can eventually
reduce the thyroid's ability to produce hormones. Doctors know this because
for decades they used very large doses of perchlorate as a treatment for
thyroid disease. So Underwood has been looking for signs of thyroid trouble in
Rancho Cordova. She's focused on newborn babies. That's because their thyroid
glands are thought to be especially vulnerable and because hospitals test the
thyroid of every newborn.

Ms. UNDERWOOD: That is a set of information that had already been collected on
infants born in this area, Rancho Cordova, so we could look back in time and
say, `Gosh, what exposures occurred to these mothers and did the infants that
were born to them have any changes in their thyroid function when they were
born?'

HAMILTON: A preliminary review found no change, but Underwood says it's


possible that study could have missed subtle effects on thyroid functions. So
she's doing a more precise study and which she hopes to have out by the end of
the year.

In the meantime, Larry Ladd says he remains skeptical about scientists who
downplayed the risks of perchlorate. He says that skepticism can be traced to
an experience he had as a child.
Mr. LADD: My grandfather got his education in a little community called Wheat,
Tennessee, which during World War II became the site of the uranium enrichment
plant at Oak Ridge. And I remember as a kid in 1967, my grandmother being all
upset about all the people with blood cancer, and my father who was a brand-new
Ph, he said, `Now, Mother, the scientists are very careful about this and
nobody is getting hurt at Oak Ridge.' And then 30 years later on the front page
of The New York Times, you find out Grandma, who had no more than 8th grade
hillbilly education, was right.

HAMILTON: Perhaps because of Larry Ladd and environmental groups who insist
perchlorate is highly toxic, local governments have preferred not to give the
chemical the benefit of the doubt. Even before California set its current
health goal, some communities had begun closing any well with a detectable
level of perchlorate, and that's brought a whole new set of problems. Some
places have run short of water, others have spent millions to clean up
contaminated wells. Sometimes they get the companies that spilled the chemical
to take on the tasks.

(Soundbite of water filter)

HAMILTON: Mike Gerard(ph) is a project manager for AeroJet, which owns the site
where perchlorate appears to be getting into Rancho Cordova's water. Gerard
used to work on rockets for the space shuttle, one known source of perchlorate
contaminations. These days he's focused on removing the chemical from local
water supplies.

(Soundbite of water filter)

Mr. MIKE GERARD (AeroJet): We're now standing directly on top of the sand
filter.

HAMILTON: The sand filter at AeroJet is part of a water tank the size of a
two-story house. It's the final step in a costly purification process. By the
time the water gets here, it's already been exposed to millions of bacteria
that once lived in strawberry jam. Here, they thrive on a diet of alcohol and
perchlorate. The organisms break down the chemical, the filter we're standing
on removes any leftover microbes.

(Soundbite of water filter)

Mr. GERARD: What you're looking at right here is the waste sludge and this very
small cylinder that's about a foot in diameter. The large area that surrounds
this small tube is actually the treated water and when you look down through it
you can see the water is absolutely crystal clear because it's now
contaminant-free.
HAMILTON: AeroJet says it spent about $40 million so far removing perchlorate
from the water here. It will cost many times that amount for every tainted
well to meet the state's new health goal. Some people think the state's
reaction to perchlorate has been out of proportion to what seems a minimal
risk. LaDonna White is a family physician in Sacramento and president of the
Golden State Medical Association which represents black doctors.

Dr. LADONNA WHITE (President, Golden State Medical Association): There's been
so much money to further regulate something that is currently not harmful or
doesn't appear to be harmful, it blows me away. We are fighting so desperately
as physicians to keep our patients who cannot get prescription drugs or cannot
afford to get to get prescription drugs to stay alive and have a quality of
life.

HAMILTON: The Federal Environmental Protection Agency is still trying to decide


whether it should set limits for perchlorate nationwide. As part of that
effort, the National Academy of Sciences has been called in to review all the
evidence, including the findings from Rancho Cordova.

Jon Hamilton, NPR News.

INSKEEP: Tomorrow, how perchlorate threatens one city's future.

The time is 29 minutes past the hour.

(Credits)

DATE: May 25, 2004

*****STEVE INSKEEP, host:

Billions of gallons of water are going unused in California because of fears


about a chemical called perchlorate. Studies show that small amounts of
perchlorate don't cause any health problems, but California's encouraging
cities to shut down wells rather than serve water with more than a trace of
that chemical, and that's causing problems in a state where water is scarce. In
the second of two stories about perchlorate, NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on one
city's struggle to keep its water pure.

JON HAMILTON reporting:

Rialto isn't one of those glitzy California towns. People move here because
it's affordable and only about 50 miles from Los Angeles. That puts it
practically in the Mojave Desert. But one thing this working-class suburb had
going for it was water. It flows hundreds of feet below ground, and for
decades, deep wells provided a seemingly endless supply. Then a couple of
years ago, things changed. Bradley Baxter remembers he'd just taken charge of
the city's Department of Public Works when he found himself on TV.

(Soundbite of public service announcement)

Mr. BRADLEY BAXTER (Rialto Department of Public Works): The city of Rialto is
in a serious water crisis, and we're asking you to do your part to help save
water. By adopting a few new habits, you can help us through this difficult
time.

HAMILTON: Rialto's water had begun testing positive for perchlorate. The news
was alarming to many residents who knew perchlorate was used to make rocket
fuel and explosives. Baxter says the other thing that scared people was how
fast perchlorate was spreading through the water supply.

Mr. BAXTER: We had one well test positive. And within a month of my arrival,
we had our second well, and then it was like an epidemic. Every time we would
test the wells, there would be another one with a hot hit.

HAMILTON: That didn't mean the water would have made anyone sick. Perchlorate
has been used as a prescription drug for decades. It can affect the thyroid
gland, but only at levels hundreds or thousands of times higher than those in
the contaminated wells. Even so, California is among the states that treat
perchlorate with great caution, so Rialto decided to shut down every
contaminated well, even those with perchlorate levels considered safe by most
scientists. Within a few months, the city had lost the use of 40 percent of
its water supply. The first impact was on water rates. They jumped 61
percent. That's been a big problem for the town's largest water customer, the
local school district. Edna Herring is the superintendent. She says that next
year's water will cost an extra $100,000.

Ms. EDNA HERRING (Superintendent of Schools): That's a teacher and a half, you
know. You're talking about 180 kids that could be taught at the high school.
You're talking about two first-year teachers at the elementary level. We just
couldn't afford that. I mean, we can't afford that.

HAMILTON: Herring's greatest fear, though, is that a water shortage will keep
people and businesses from moving to Rialto. That could be disastrous for a
city that has staked its future on rapid growth.

From a hill just north of town, you can get an aerial view of Rialto and its
perchlorate problem. The hill is manmade. It's the highest point on a county
landfill site that includes a concrete and gravel operation. Somewhere beneath
this land is where scientists believe perchlorate first got into the city's
water supply. Bill Hunt, a geologist who consults for Rialto, says the
contamination can be traced to the land's various occupants. He says all of
them made use of the dozens of concrete bunkers dug into the landscape.

Mr. BILL HUNT (Geologist): They were originally occupied by the military during
World War II to store munitions. After the war ended, the site was then
occupied by defense contractors, and then fireworks manufacturers went in after
that.

HAMILTON: All of the occupants handled large quantities of perchlorate and


presumably left some behind. Hunt says the chemical probably just sat in the
ground until a private company began using the site to wash gravel.

Mr. HUNT: When they're done, they have a wastewater stream that leached through
the residual perchlorate left behind by former users and carried it down into
the groundwater, and then from there, it became a hot spot and then spread with
the natural groundwater flow southeasterly from here.

HAMILTON: Hunt says the perchlorate has traveled about seven miles so far.
That's brought a lot of attention to Rialto, but not the sort that encourages
growth. Before the water crisis, Rialto had grown from about 34,000 residents
in the 1970s to nearly 100,000 today. Edna Herring says that growth is what's
brought a small measure of prosperity to the city.

Ms. HERRING: To me now it is almost glamorous. It's what the people who live
here deserve, nice places like a Starbucks to go to, the 210 freeway to come
through here and provide employment. That's my vision for this community to
grow.

HAMILTON: Just about everyone talks about the 210 freeway, even though it's
still just a 100-foot wide trench through the north side of town. When it's
done, the freeway's eight lanes will carry more than 160,000 cars a day right
through Rialto. Bradley Baxter says it's hard to describe just how important
that project is to the local economy.

Mr. BAXTER: For cities who are adjacent to freeways and major transportation
corridors, it is the lifeblood of economic development, because you see
businesses and auto malls and hotels and goods and services our residents want,
so it truly is the economic machine for Southern California and for the city of
Rialto.

(Soundbite of construction equipment)

HAMILTON: Unfortunately, freeway construction requires a huge amount of water.


Down at the 210 construction site, it's easy to see why. In arid climates like
this one, these bulldozers and scrapers would churn up enough dust to violate
the state's air quality standards. So every few minutes a water truck comes by
to spray the dirt. Each year of construction requires about 175 million
gallons of water. No water, no freeway.

So far, Rialto has found ways to come up with the water, including conservation
efforts and buying water from neighboring communities. But Susan Trager(ph), a
lawyer for the city, says those aren't long-term solutions.

Ms. SUSAN TRAGER (Lawyer): You've got to get treatment on wells, you have to
stop the source of the pollution and you have to have a plan to comprehensively
address the cleanup of the entire basin in order to have a future here.

HAMILTON: Those measures are expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars,


money the city government doesn't have. So Rialto is suing parties that may be
responsible for dumping perchlorate, including munitions makers and the
Department of Defense. Trager says even paying for the suit has been a
challenge.

Ms. TRAGER: There's not the kind of money here that could fund lavish and
incredibly aggressive litigation. The City Council found it necessary to adopt
a rate increase to fund it, and it was with regret, I think, that they did it,
but they were left with very little alternative.

HAMILTON: One company has contributed several million dollars to begin cleaning
up the perchlorate. Some others are discussing a voluntary plan to treat the
contaminated water. How much they provide, though, may depend on whether the
federal Environmental Protection Agency agrees with California that very low
levels of perchlorate are dangerous. That's not a foregone conclusion. In the
meantime, Rialto's perchlorate spill is heading for the Santa Ana River, a
source of drinking water for about two million Californians. Jon Hamilton, NPR
News.

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