Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 - The Defense Department, which controls 28 million acres of land across the nation that it uses for combat exercises and weapons testing, has been moving on a variety of fronts to reduce requirements that it safeguard the environment on that land. In Congress, the Pentagon has won exemptions in the last two years from parts of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. It has sought in recent years to exempt military activities, for three years, from compliance with parts of the Clean Air Act. Also, the Pentagon, which controls about 140 of...

Preliminary research shows traces of a rocket fuel ingredient in milk across California, prompting a debate about safety standards for the pervasive pollutant perchlorate. In a report to be released today, the Environmental Working Group said its samples of supermarket milk generally confirm unpublished tests done by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which in April sampled milk at a few dozen processors statewide. Both the state and the Environmental Working Group said adults and children should keep drinking milk - which offers calcium and important vitamins - because little is known about risks of perchlorate in milk.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon missed a deadline for sending Congress a report on perchlorate contamination at defense sites nationwide, prompting complaints Monday from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein, the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee that handles military construction, released a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying she was "deeply disappointed" the department missed Friday's congressionally mandated deadline. "Additionally, 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. Perchlorate, an ingredient...

<p>Nearly 50 years after its discovery in Sacramento County drinking water supplies, a hazardous component of solid rocket fuel is on its way to becoming a state-regulated water contaminant.</p> <p>California environmental officials Thursday announced a public health goal for perchlorate, a component of solid rocket fuel deemed essential to national defense but a threat to the nation's water supplies.</p>

Advocacy Group Finds Contaminant in Lettuce Officials question whether chemical poses health risk Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer Potentially high levels of a toxic chemical in rocket fuel have been detected in winter lettuce purchased in Northern California supermarkets, an environmental group claims in a report being released today. Laboratory studies commissioned by the Environmental Working Group in Oakland found the chemical perchlorate, a hormone disrupter, in four of 22 samples of lettuce traced to growers in Southern California or Arizona. A typical serving of the contaminated lettuce would contain four times the level of perchlorate considered safe in...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A laboratory test of 22 types of lettuce purchased at Northern California supermarkets found that four were contaminated with perchlorate, a toxic rocket-fuel ingredient that has polluted the Colorado River, the source of the water used to grow most of the nation's winter vegetables. The environmental group that paid for the testing by Texas Tech University conceded that the sample was far too small to draw any definite conclusions about how much perchlorate is in the lettuce Americans eat. But the organization, the Environmental Working Group, said the results were enough to warrant a broad examination by...