[CTRL] Bush voids drinking water, arsenic rule

[William Shannon]

Bush voids drinking water, arsenic rule


By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (March 20, 2001 6:51 p.m. EST)

- Despite a 1999 National Academy of Sciences finding that arsenic in
drinking water causes bladder, lung and skin cancer, the Bush administration
on Tuesday reversed a Clinton decision requiring 3,000 communities to upgrade
their water systems to protect against arsenic poisoning. The Environmental
Protection Agency said it was withdrawing the new standards reducing
allowable levels of arsenic in drinking water by 80 percent until it can
review the science and costs more. "I am committed to safe and affordable
drinking water for all Americans. I want to be sure that the conclusions
about arsenic in the rule are supported by the best available science," said
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. The administration also announced Tuesday
it would honor a consent decree to toughen pesticide regulations that EPA
signed with environmental groups and farm workers the day before Clinton left
office. But it said it would take a new look at some of the risk assessments
in re-evaluating pesticides. The new drinking water rule was intended to
update an arsenic standard that has been in effect for nearly 60 years. It
would have cut the acceptable level of arsenic in drinking water from 50
parts per billion to 10 parts per billion. Arsenic is both a naturally
occurring substance and industrial byproduct. Environmentalists have argued
for years that the arsenic standard set in 1942 should be lowered. "The
scientific indicators are unclear as to whether the standard needs to be as
low as 10 parts per billion," Whitman said. The EPA had proposed setting it
at 5 parts per billion last year in response to a lawsuit by the Natural
Resources Defense Council but then settled at 10 parts per billion. NRDC said
it will file another suit challenging Tuesday's decision. "This outrageous
act is just another example of how the polluters have taken over the
government," said Erik D. Olson, an attorney for the environmental group,
referring to the mining interests that are the source of some arsenic. Last
week, Bush said he had changed his mind and decided against regulating carbon
dioxide as a pollutant contributing to global warming. And the Agriculture
Department moved last week to lift Clinton administration orders banning
logging and road-building in about one-third of the nation's national
forests. NRDC also was a party in the pesticides consent decree, which
requires EPA to determine whether certain insecticides and weed killers act
together as cumulative poisons. EPA said Tuesday its attorneys told Whitman
she had little flexibility to change or withdraw from the decree. Nevada Sen.
Harry Reid, the senior Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee, said he was pleased that Bush did not bow to industry pressure on
the pesticides issue. "Pesticides can permanently harm a young child's brain
development, and this settlement will make sure that federal standards are
developed and enforced to protect children," Reid said.