• 01/28/04, Report from an informal hearing chaired be Sen. Nell Soto
• 10/22/03, California and U.S. EPA Heading to Perchlorate Standards

January 28, 2004

CSA attended an informational hearing this afternoon focused on perchlorate contamination. In follow-up to legislation passed last year (AB 826), but opposed by
CSA, the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) is in the process of establishing standards for the managing and handling of perchlorate.

Currently, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is in the process of issuing a comprehensive report, based on science, that would be used as a guild for the federal EPA and the State of California to set perchlorate safety standards. But there is an effort by some key legislators to get California to set its standards before the NAS findings are made. California's current advisory levels for allowable perchlorate contamination in water is 4 parts per billion, which is approximately four teaspoons worth of perchlorate mixed into the water of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. But commonly used perchlorate levels used in safe medical treatments is upwards of 70,000 parts per billion.

The hearing was chaired by Senator Nell Soto and other legislators who attended were: Senators Byron Sher, Shiela Kuehl, Dennis Hollingsworth, Pete Knight and Assemblyman John Laird. There was considerable discussion about whether or not the aerospace community and/or the Department of Defense was addressing the clean-up successfully.

October 22, 2003

The State of California and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) are on parallel tracks to establish a drinking water standard for perchlorate. Because perchlorate is used by the military, NASA and the space enterprise community as an ingredient in solid rocket fuel and explosives, CSA is taking an interest in this discussion and is cooperating with the Council on Water Quality to ensure a fair and unbiased debate occurs.