By Edward Walsh
Arsenic occurs naturally in rocks, soil, water, air, plants and animals. According to the EPA, international studies have linked long-term exposure to arsenic in drinking water to cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin, kidney, nasal passages, liver and prostate.
Seven months after it set off a political firestorm by suspending the Clinton administration's toughened standard for acceptable levels of naturally occurring arsenic in drinking water, the Bush administration announced October 31 that it is adopting the same standard of 10 parts arsenic per billion parts water.
In a letter to key congressional appropriations committee members announcing the decision, Christine Todd Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the standard "will improve the safety of drinking water for millions of Americans and better protect against the risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes."
But administration critics greeted the announcement by saying the EPA had no choice but to retain the 10-parts-per-billion standard. They argued that a recent study commissioned by the administration showed that it should have adopted an even tougher standard of 3 parts per billion.
"They're moving in the right direction, but they did it because they had no choice," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).
Boxer and others said a National Academy of Sciences study released in September concluded that an arsenic standard of 10 parts per billion would produce a cancer risk that far exceeds what the EPA considers acceptable.
"We think that obviously they recognized the writing on the wall and decided to stick with 10 parts per billion rather than follow the new science that shows they should go below 10," said Erik D. Olson, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The EPA asked for the study in March when it suspended one of the last acts of the Clinton administration, a tightening of the long-standing federal standard for arsenic levels in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion.
Whitman said at the time that the Clinton rule had been hastily adopted without adequate scientific study or consideration of costs to small communities that would be forced to change their water filtration systems.
But suspension of the Clinton standard caused an uproar and led to portrayals of the new Bush administration as hostile to the environment, and Bush's job approval ratings slipped significantly in public opinion surveys. The House and the Senate later adopted measures requiring the administration to adopt an arsenic standard of no more than 10 parts per billion.