Feinstein to check on perchlorate cleanup

Monday, Jan. 13, 2003 | 9:45 a.m.

Two staffers from Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office will tour the Kerr-McGee Corp.'s perchlorate-contaminated plant site in Henderson on Tuesday, a week after Feinstein demanded that the company do more to stop the chemical from entering Lake Mead.

Kerr-McGee arranged the tour to demonstrate what the company is doing to remove the contaminant, a chemical used in the production of rocket fuels. Feinstein, a California Democrat, is concerned that perchlorate is entering Lake Mead -- the source of drinking water for millions in Southern California and Southern Nevada.

James Peterson, the head of Feinstein's San Diego office, and Guillermo Gonzalez, the head of her Los Angeles office, are scheduled to tour the now-shuttered plant site and the cleanup efforts.

Authorities from state and federal agencies acknowledge that perchlorate is in the drinking water supply, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not determined a safe threshold for the level of contamination.

The existing EPA standard is 18 parts per billion. California has an advisory limit that requires water systems to warn their customers when the level of perchlorate reaches four parts per billion.

The level in Lake Mead and drinking water delivered to Southern Nevada customers was measured at about 13 parts per billion last month. Some home filtration systems can remove the material, but the Southern Nevada Water Authority does not have a large-scale treatment system to remove the contaminant.

Scientists are studying perchlorate's effect on animals, but they have come to little agreement on how much, if any, of the chemical is safe.

Kerr-McGee, in the company's response to Feinstein's letter, cited studies that showed children and adults were exposed to far higher concentrations without negative health impacts.

Feinstein last week, however, asked Kerr-McGee to install wells between the Athens Road site and Las Vegas Wash to block groundwater from leaching into the wash and ultimately Lake Mead.

Local Nevada Division of Environmental Protection and Kerr-McGee officials say remediation efforts are already under way, including a network of wells at the site designed to do what Feinstein asked. The company says it has spent more than $60 million on the cleanup since 1998.

Kerr-McGee Vice President George Christiansen said in a response to the senator that the company is committed to cleaning up the site -- but also asked the federal government, "the end user for nearly all of the perchlorate produced at the plant until operations were discontinued in 1998," to help pay for the cleanup.

"The U.S. government so far has refused to accept financial responsibility for the remediation work," Christiansen said. "We hope you will help ensure that the federal government steps forward to accept financial responsibility for the cleanup that we began more than three years ago."