UPDATE - US green group sues EPA over arsenic in water USA: June 29, 2001
WASHINGTON - A major U.S. environmental group, backed by six Democratic senators, yesterday filed a lawsuit challenging the Bush administration's decision to suspend stricter limits for arsenic in drinking water.
The Natural Resources Defense Council accused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of unlawfully reversing its position on tighter arsenic rules and ignoring a June 22 deadline set by Congress for new standards.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, said she would file documents in support of the lawsuit at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C.
Also signing the friend-of-the-court document were Democratic senators Harry Reid of Nevada, Charles Schumer of New York, Jon Corzine of New Jersey, Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, and Hillary Clinton - whose husband's administration issued a stricter rule for arsenic just before leaving office.
Arsenic, which has been linked to cancer, naturally occurs in groundwater as a result of minerals dissolving over time from rocks and soil.
The Clinton administration issued a plan in January to cut the maximum amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water from the current 50 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb. The 10 ppb standard is the same used by the World Health Organization and the European Union.
Under President George W. Bush, the EPA announced it would halt the stricter standards to allow more time for studying the issue. A sharply lower limit for arsenic in drinking water is opposed by some small communities, who claim it would be too costly and produce only limited health benefits.
The EPA, which spent some 20 years considering arsenic levels in drinking water, faced a June 22, 2001 deadline set by Congress for new standards.
"The Bush EPA's suspension of the arsenic is a distressing, unscientific, and illegal threat to the health of millions of Americans," said Erik D. Olson, an attorney with the environmental group. "There is no excuse for delaying or weakening the standard just finalized in January of this year."
The EPA previously said it would issue a new rule by early next year that would take effect in 2006, the same deadline included in the January rule. The Bush administration rule will sharply reduce the amount of arsenic allowed in water, but will base it on the outcome of a National Academy of Sciences study, according to the EPA.
Last year, the U.S. Geological Survey found that arsenic concentrations in ground water generally were highest in the West and in some parts of the Midwest and Northeast.
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