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EPA to Lower Level for Arsenic in Water

By Mike Allen
Thursday, April 19, 2001

The Bush administration said yesterday that it will consider allowing more arsenic in drinking water than President Bill Clinton would have permitted, but said the new level will be much lower than is currently allowed.

Christine Todd Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the new level will be set after a study by the National Academy of Sciences. She said economic consequences will figure in setting the new level.

The EPA said the new rule will be in place 11 months after Clinton's would have taken effect. Environmentalists accused Bush officials of stalling.

Last month, Whitman suspended a Clinton administration regulation -- to be effective March 23 -- lowering the permissible level of arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10.

The EPA said in a news release that Whitman "took this step because of her concerns that the initial study had been rushed and a more precise scientific review was required." The administration came under immediate criticism from Democratic lawmakers and environmentalists.

Whitman said yesterday that the EPA is considering a standard of three to 20 parts per billion. The EPA has commissioned a study of that range from the National Academy of Sciences, which said it could complete a report in five months.

The EPA said it expects to have the new standard in place by Feb. 22. Enforcement is to begin in 2006, which, the EPA said, is the first time that Clinton's rule would have carried penalties.

"I have said consistently that we will obtain the necessary scientific review to ensure a standard that fully protects the health of all Americans, and that we will establish that standard in a timely manner," Whitman said. "This is precisely what we are doing today."

Whitman said she will ask the National Drinking Water Advisory Council to review economic issues associated with a standard, because it could increase costs for smaller water systems and the communities they serve.

Tina Kreisher, an EPA associate administrator, said the agency will "more than likely" adopt the academy's recommendation as the new regulation. But scientists have said they cannot pick a specific number, which they consider to be a public policy decision.

The academy said in 1999 that the standard should be lowered from the current level immediately, but did not give a new target.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit organization with a congressional charter to advise the government. Bill Kearney, a spokesman, said it would take a few weeks to appoint a panel of about eight. Then the study would take four months. He said there has been "some significant research" done since the last study, and that information will be considered by the new panel.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) called the announcement "a huge step backward" and said the Bush administration "should be ashamed."

"I intend to do everything in my power to fight this," she said.

Yesterday's announcement came after two consecutive days in which Bush had said he would uphold a Clinton environmental regulation that had been held up as part of Bush's review of all of Clinton's last-minute orders.

Debbie Cease, national legislative director of the Sierra Club, said the announcement was designed to look like action by the administration, when in fact it is a matter of restudying a topic that has been frequently studied.

Philip E. Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust, said, "The science is already clear: At levels even below the standard the president revoked, arsenic in drinking water causes cancer."