DOD Report on Perchlorate Contamination Faulted

A Department of Defense report on perchlorate contamination at military facilities has come under fire. In the report requested by Congress, DOD says 14 military sites that will be or are closed have soil or groundwater polluted with perchlorate. The chemical, used in rocket fuel, can interfere with thyroid function. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) calls the report "inadequate and unresponsive" because it lists far fewer than the 74 closed or about-to-be-closed potentially contaminated facilities that were identified by congressional investigators in December 2003. "This report makes clear that the Defense Department intends to continue to drag its feet until a federal standard for perchlorate is adopted," Feinstein wrote in a July 23 letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. That standard will be set after a National Academy of Sciences report on the issue is completed later this year. Feinstein urged Rumsfeld to revise the report to include all the potentially contaminated sites and to provide a plan to remediate perchlorate pollution at all these facilities.