Pentagon searches for perchlorate replacement

Thursday, July 10, 2003 | 11:35 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

SACRAMENTO -- Faced with mounting evidence of a national drinking water threat, including a threat to Southern Nevada, the Pentagon has launched a top-priority search for an environmentally safer alternative to a rocket fuel ingredient deemed essential to national defense.

The move to find a substitute for perchlorate signals a growing recognition of the chemical's widespread infiltration into well water and its potential to impair hormone production and brain development, especially in infants and fetuses.

The perchlorate threat is especially acute in Southern Nevada. Perchlorate compounds from two Henderson-area plants have been found in Lake Mead, Southern Nevada's water supply.

One of the plants, owned by Kerr-McGee Corp., a former Defense Department contractor, has been the focus of an expensive cleanup project since 1999. Plant operations halted in 1998.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., commended the Pentagon for looking for a safer alternative, but said the government should focus on the problems at hand.

"This is a giant step in the right direction," Porter said through his spokeswoman Traci Scott. "But we still need to remain committed to cleaning up our drinking water supply."

Porter and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., this year sponsored an amendment to a pending Defense Department bill that would launch a Pentagon study of the health effects of perchlorate.

But Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has questioned the credibility of a Defense Department study because the department faces expensive clean-up costs. Reid sponsored legislation that is still pending that directs the Pentagon to disclose a 2002 survey of its military installations where perchlorate contamination was possible.

Perchlorate is also a serious problem in California because of the large number of military operations and defense contractors, such as Aerojet's rocket-manufacturing plant in Rancho Cordova where the chemical has contaminated many wells. Compounding the problem is the state's heavy reliance on groundwater for drinking water.

A top Pentagon official disclosed the decision to find a perchlorate substitute in an interview with The Sacramento Bee on Monday, at the beginning of a weeklong series of meetings with California officials.

"We are very concerned about perchlorate contamination," said John Paul Woodley, assistant deputy undersecretary of defense. "The Department of Defense's Environmental Research and Development has established as its number one priority the remediation of perchlorate and finding a substitute."

The Army already is taking steps to replace perchlorate used in smoke bombs and other explosives, Woodley said.

Perchlorate -- the oxidizer used to speed combustion in rocketry for more than 50 years -- is corrupting far more drinking water wells in California than the gasoline additive MTBE, which is being phased out of the state's fuel supply.

While nearly every public well has been tested for MTBE; only one-third have been checked for perchlorate.

As of July, however, water suppliers already have found 405 perchlorate-contaminated wells, compared to 88 contaminated with MTBE, state health department figures show.

California officials applauded the Pentagon's decision Tuesday, but said it does not diminish the immediate need to stop the spread of perchlorate underground and restore the hundreds of contaminated wells.

Sun reporter

Benjamin Grove and the Sacramento Bee contributed to this story.