Editorial: Bush’s take on arsenic: Don’t worry

Thursday, March 22, 2001 | 8:59 a.m.

It is stunning that the Bush administration would be so callous as to abandon regulations that would have curbed dangerous amounts of arsenic in drinking water, a problem that principally affects the West. After assuming the oath of office, President Bush suspended some regulations adopted at the tail end of Bill Clinton's Democratic administration, saying that he wanted to review them. But shelving the arsenic rules makes no sense whatsoever since it puts millions of Americans in harm's way of this known carcinogen.

The last time the federal government revised its arsenic levels in water was in 1942, when the acceptable level was 50 parts per billion. Since that time scientific advances have found that a wide array of chemicals and other substances, which once were considered benign, actually are dangerous, sometimes causing fatal diseases. That's why it is dismaying that Christie Whitman, the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator, said that the administration rescinded the rules to make sure that the best science arrives at how much arsenic actually constitutes a danger to the 11 million Americans whose drinking water would have exceeded the new arsenic standard. If science indeed is an issue, as Whitman claims, where has she been?

Research has shown that arsenic can be dangerous. A 1999 National Academy of Sciences study of arsenic's threat to health, which was used in developing the new standards, found that the existing standard of 50 parts per billion could easily lead to a one-in-100 risk of getting cancer. The EPA's standard is one that already has been adopted by the World Health Organization and the European Union.

Whitman also said the administration was worried about the costs of the new regulation on the estimated 3,000 communities, many of which have small municipal or private water systems. If Bush really was concerned about the cost, he could have supported legislation sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the ranking Democratic member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Reid's bill would set aside $750 million annually for small communities, like those in the Northern Nevada town of Fallon, to upgrade their drinking water systems in order to comply with the new standards. It appears as if Bush's decision was motivated in part as a favor to the mining industry, a big contributor to his campaign. Mining operations can be a source of arsenic, so the tougher water rules could have resulted in stricter standards at these sites.

Bush's move on Tuesday renewed concern about what the next four years will be like for the environment. After all, he recently broke a campaign pledge with his decision to forgo regulations over carbon dioxide emissions, which scientists say have led to global warming. In addition, he has delayed a ban on road construction and logging in about a third of federal forest lands. Bush also wants to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for oil and natural gas drilling.

During the campaign, Bush touted his "compassionate conservatism," suggesting he was part of a new breed of Republicans. In his only visit to Nevada, Bush stopped at Lake Tahoe in June, pledging he would be a "steward of the earth" -- a promise that now rings hollow. On the stump, Bush also loved to ridicule Clinton as having no moral compass and no backbone when making decisions. But ironically, in his first weeks in office, Bush has shown that he is weak-kneed when confronted by polluting industries or big business interests that lavished his presidential bid with huge campaign donations. So far Bush's term hasn't exactly been a profile in courage.