The Time Has Come To Remove Rocket Fuel From Our Water

Find Out Why The EPA Is Taking Action & How It Got Into Our Water In The First Place.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Every time we write about rocket fuel, I can’t help but sing Elton John’s iconic song “Rocket Man.” Did you know the lyrics were inspired by a 1950s short story titled, “The Rocket Man” by the late American author Ray Bradbury? His story, about an astronaut who is torn between going to space and being with his family, really resonates with me. While he dearly wants to be with his family, he also loves the stars in space.

It reminds me of the pull between loving our country and the unfortunate aftermath of toxic pollution. We need business to thrive, but we also need to protect our most precious resources.

Unsafe levels of perchlorate in our drinking water come from the toxic ingredients in the tools we use to defend the U.S.

So why did the regulatory agency tasked with our environmental protection have to be sued in order to regulate this chemical?

Like most things with our government, it’s complicated.

So the good news is that the U.S. EPA has committed to issuing a National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for perchlorate since the last time we wrote about it. The proposal will be out later this year with a final regulation by May 21, 2027, as required by court orders.

But the bad news is that we’ve been trying to get it regulated since 2011 and talking about this issue for decades before that. Plus, new proposed job cuts at the EPA and the new administration’s spending freezes could delay these regulations further.

Before 1997, it was very hard to measure perchlorate in the environment. Once a method was developed (thank you, scientists), low levels of perchlorate in water and other media were able to be measured.

Scientists began looking for perchlorate near sites where they had been used or discarded and were surprised when they found them in many other places, including areas where there was no known perchlorate use. They did not think that perchlorate could last very long in the environment because of its reactivity. Since then, it has been found in environmental media such as soil, plants, and animals located in areas where perchlorate was used and released, and in areas where there was no known use or man-made releases of perchlorates.

(Source: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp162.pdf)

Last year, we discussed how the chemical still shows up in our food system and its lengthy road to regulation.

From a scientific lens, perchlorate is an inorganic anion. It’s also a toxic component of rocket fuel, munitions, signal flares, fireworks, and more—that may threaten the drinking water of millions of people in the United States.

Here’s some facts about it from the EPA:

Of the domestically produced perchlorate, 90 percent is manufactured for use in the defense and aerospace industries.

It is highly soluble in water; migrates quickly from soil to groundwater.

The primary pathways for human exposure include ingestion of contaminated food and drinking water.

It’s also worth noting that like so many other chemicals found in our drinking water, perchlorate is colorless and has no odor. It’s not an easy one to detect, unless someone is monitoring your drinking water.

So how did this rocket fuel chemical make its way into our drinking water?

It does occur naturally in some locations, such as regions of the southwest, but the biggest culprit is the Department of Defense and big defense contractors.

I’ve said this for years. The U.S. Department of Defense is one of the world's biggest polluters.

For years, they tested military equipment, from rockets to fighter jets, as the fuel seeped into the ground and ended up in our drinking water.

Most states have found perchlorate in their water, but they don’t have to tell you about it. Wild, right? These new regulations would change that.

But there’s a bigger question—why has regulations have stalled for SO MANY YEARS?

Here’s what John B. Stephenson, director of Natural Resources and Environment at U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a statement back in 2007:

As we have previously reported, DOD faces the daunting task of cleaning up thousands of military bases and other installations across the country. Many of these sites are contaminated with toxic and radioactive wastes in soil, water, or containers such as underground storage tanks, ordnance and explosives, and unsafe buildings. Identifying and investigating these hazards will take decades, and cleanup will cost many billions of dollars.

In addition to the federal fiscal implications of the large cleanup costs, defense-related contamination problems have economic consequences for individual communities. Many of these formerly used defense sites are now owned by states, local governments, and individuals and used for parks, schools, farms, and homes. Of particular concern are military facilities closed under DOD's Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program that are intended to be redeveloped for productive new uses and 
must generally be cleaned up before conversion. 

Follow the money. When we regulate chemicals, someone must pay for the clean-up. When we ignore these issues, we kick the can down the road, keep the budgets on track, and hope no one notices when people get sick.

In that same statement he discusses how the EPA first placed perchlorate on its Contaminant Candidate List in 1998, but that the agency concluded that information was “insufficient to determine whether perchlorate should be regulated under the SDWA.”

It’s important to note that the DoD has certain responsibilities regarding contaminants regulated by EPA, but its responsibilities and clean-up goals are less definite for contaminants that lack federal regulations.

You see the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) gives the EPA authority to identify contaminants and regulate their levels in drinking water to protect public health.

The agency has three criteria, according to the law, when determining what to regulate:

1. a contaminant may have an adverse health effect on people

2. a contaminant is known to occur or there is a high chance that the contaminant will occur in public water systems often enough and at levels of public health concern

3. regulation of the contaminant will result in a meaningful opportunity for health

Listen, I know we need good science in order to set good regulations, but let’s pause for a commonsense moment.

If I offered you a glass of water and told you it had rocket fuel in it, would you want to drink it? I’m guessing the answer would be a resounding “no.”

And we do have science on the impacts of perchlorate. It has a huge impact on the thyroid gland even at low levels. At high levels, perchlorate can inhibit the function of the thyroid gland, leading to hypothyroidism in adults. A 2006 study also found that much lower levels of perchlorate can be detrimental to thyroid function in women.

”It's stunning,” endocrinologist Thomas Zoeller of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst told Science.

Perchlorate has been shown to inhibit the thyroid’s uptake of iodine, which is required as a building block for the synthesis of thyroid hormone. Scientists have noted this effect is of particular concern to the developing babies and infants, whose normal neurodevelopment depends on adequate iodine intake to produce thyroid hormones.

I also find it interesting that an estimated 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease, according to the American Thyroid Association. I know that “correlation doesn’t imply causation,” but in the absence of more studies looking at how perchlorate is impacting our health, we have to consider that it might be contributing even at a small level.

Just look at PFAS, another chemical that has been found at hundreds of military bases across the country, wreaking havoc on people’s health. As more people tell their stories and speak up, more action is taking place to protect future generations.

Listen, I’m the first person to be critical of the EPA and expose its flaws. But right now, without it, how will we clean up the toxic legacies left behind in our neighborhoods?

Additionally, our tax dollars are overpaying for the same rocket fuel that is in our drinking water. Defense contractors and aerospace manufacturers are known to price gouge the Pentagon. Just last year, three commercial rocket launch companies, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance, won contracts potentially worth $5.6 billion for five years, the Pentagon announced. What percentage of that money helps ensure everyday people won’t be harmed by these activities?

I also find it interesting that the Pentagon has never passed an audit since the agency became legally obligated to carry them out in 2018. Last year, the agency failed its seventh audit in a row, unable to fully account for its more than $824 billion budget, according to the Hill. Where does our money go and how much is helping to clean up these toxic sites?

Hundreds of current and former military bases throughout the U.S. have reported toxic water contamination. The Environmental Working group maintains a map of more than 770 active and former Department of Defense installations contaminated with toxic pollutants, including PFAS, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, trichloroethylene and other chemicals like perchlorate.

We have the power together to fight until the water is safe for everyone to drink. Use your voices now. Call your elected officials and let them know your concerns.

We can certainly have differences in our political ideologies, but we can’t waiver in our support for human health. Future lives are at stake.

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Keep the conversation going in the comments below. What’s your take on perchlorate and the snail’s pace it’s take to hopefully regulate this chemical?