Perchlorate contamination widespread in the West

Thursday, Sept. 25, 1997 | 10:24 a.m.

About 1,000 Kennecott Utah Copper miners are now drinking bottled water because of perchlorate contamination at their plant west of Salt Lake City.

The story of perchlorate contaminating water sources is becoming a familiar one in the West, wherever rocket fuel was made, whether near Las Vegas or in California.

Utah's perchlorate results ranged from 4 parts per billion to 200 parts per billion in ground water wells in an industrial area and 13 parts per billion in Kennecott's drinking water supply.

That level is below a guideline for perchlorate set by California officials in April.

But Kennecott officials ordered the employees to switch to bottled water as a precaution until the Utah State Division of Drinking Water can test further, said Bill Williams, Kennecott's safety director.

Utah's contaminated water is similar to results found in Las Vegas and California.

California scientists developed a way to test for perchlorate at the parts-per-billion range this year.

California discovered the rocket fuel booster in wells near Sacramento and Los Angeles. The state closed 18 wells supplying drinking water after finding levels of perchlorate above 18 parts per billion.

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District found perchlorate at 8 parts per billion at its intake and at Hoover Dam, prompting the Southern Nevada Water Authority to begin tests of drinking water supplies and water discharged to valley wells.

The local water authority found perchlorate levels at 11 parts per billion, below California's guideline. Southern Nevada Water Authority officials said the treated Lake Mead water is safe to drink.

There are no state or federal drinking water standards for perchlorate. California set the 18 ppb limit as a guideline for its drinking water.

Perchlorate in large doses can disrupt the human thyroid, a gland which regulates how the body functions. The chemical is given to patients with overactive thyroids and fed to cattle to fatten them for market.

In extremely high doses the chemical can cause brain damage in fetuses and a fatal form of leukemia in adults after it attacks bone marrow.

Scientists don't know how chronic, low doses of perchlorate affect people, but a national study is underway including research scientists, the military and the federal government to examine perchlorate effects.

The Kennecott contamination came from neighboring Alliant Techsystems, a rocket motor builder. That company discovered elevated levels of perchlorate in wells 400 feet deep.

Alliant, once known as Hercules, had used ammonium perchlorate since the 1960s, before environmental laws became effective. Until 1988 Alliant employees discharged the chemical into the ground, west of Salt Lake City.

The contaminated water in Utah spread in much the same way as Southern Nevada's contamination.

The nation's two ammonium perchlorate makers, Pacific Engineering & Production Co. and Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp., operated for more than 40 years on a Clark County-owned island near Henderson.

After PEPCON's plant exploded and was destroyed in 1988, the company moved its operations to Cedar City, Utah. Kerr-McGee, on the other hand, remained at the site, but stores its product at Apex, 15 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Perchlorate in Southern Nevada was discovered in drinking water, well water and in Lake Mead.