Domenici Encourages EPA Reconsideration of Arsenic Drinking Water Standard

Domenici Encourages EPA Reconsideration of Arsenic Drinking Water Standard

Monday, April 3, 2006

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Pete Domenici today said he wholeheartedly supports a reconsideration of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arsenic drinking water standard, particularly in light of additional scientific information that calls into question the necessity to limit contaminants to 10 parts per billion (ppb).

Domenici, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, today opened a briefing hosted by the National Rural Water Association to review the implementation impact of the EPA arsenic standard that went into effect in January. The briefing also reviewed a study published in March in the National Institutes of Health scientific journal, Environmental Health Perspectives (www.ehponline.org/members/2006/8704/8704.pdf).

"This new study reinforces my belief that the scientific data that led to the new arsenic standard is lacking," Domenici said. "There is a significant step between the 100 parts per billion level cited as safe in this study and the 10 parts per billion standard that our communities are now struggling to comply with."

"With the science on which the EPA based the new standards coming under credible question, I surely support the EPA's serious reconsideration of the new standard. I do not know how easy it will be for the EPA to ease the standard, but it is worth the effort," he said.

Domenici has long been critical of the scientific basis for the 10 ppb arsenic standard, particularly since arsenic is a naturally-occurring element in New Mexico and has been consumed in the water for centuries by the people without evidence of higher levels of disease.

As small New Mexico communities and water systems attempt to meet the 10 ppb standard, Domenici has been pressuring the New Mexico Environment Department to implement more lenient, EPA-approved guidelines on granting extensions for compliance.

The EPA has also begun the formal process to revise the 10 ppb standard with a notice printed in the federal register. Public comments are being accepted through May 1.

http://domenici.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=253503