Yahoo! News Story - Pentagon Misses Toxic Report Deadline

May 4, 2004

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Pentagon Misses Toxic Report Deadline

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Pentagon Misses Toxic Report Deadline

Mon May 3, 6:49 PM ET

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By ERICA WERNER, Associated Press Deadline

WASHINGTON -

The Pentagon (news - web sites) missed a deadline last week for sending Congress a report on contamination by a toxic chemical at defense sites nationwide. Perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel, has been found in drinking water supplies in 22 states where it was manufactured and handled. It has been linked to damage to the thyroid and may be especially harmful to infants.

The April 30 deadline for a report on the contaminant was contained in a military construction bill passed last year.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, senior Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee that handles military construction, complained to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld about the deadline being missed.

"I am troubled by the fact that the department has consistently avoided providing information to Congress about perchlorate contamination on Defense Department sites, and describing what, if anything, it has done to remediate the contamination," Feinstein wrote Rumsfeld in a letter released Monday.

Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said the report should be ready within days. He said there was no particular reason for the delay other than trying to make sure the report was prepared correctly.

"Each site is different and we have to make sure we analyze it very carefully to make sure we know the information we're getting is accurate," Flood said. "There's no deliberate delay at all."

The Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) is working on its first national standard for perchlorate in drinking water but is not expected to issue a final standard until 2006.

California officials last month set the state's public health goal at six parts per billion the first such level set in the country for the toxin. EPA's draft proposal is stricter one part per billion.

Lawmakers have been seeking a comprehensive report on perchlorate from the Defense Department for over a year. Last year they received what they described as a sketchy, bewildering document in which officials surveyed 305 of the nation's 5,000 former and active military bases.

Democrats have complained the Pentagon is resisting full disclosure because it could face billions of dollars in cleanup costs and liability for health problems.

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