Chemical will stay for years

It will take years to stop a 40-year buildup of rocket fuel chemicals from entering Las Vegas' drinking water, concerned citizens learned at a public hearing in Henderson Wednesday night.

Ammonium perchlorate, a rocket fuel booster, has been found in underground channels flowing beneath Henderson toward the Las Vegas Wash, explained Brenda Pohlmann, lead scientist for the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection.

"Where is it coming from?" asked Las Vegas resident Paul Da Rosa, the father of a newborn son, at the public meeting where federal, state and local scientists discussed ways to remove the persistent rocket fuel booster from drinking water supplies in more than 40 states.

Pohlmann said perchlorate -- made by two chemical companies near Henderson since the 1950s -- has persisted in the soils and is carried by ground water to Lake Mead, Southern Nevada's major source of drinking water.

"The answer is to catch it, treat it and prevent it from going into the Wash," Pohlmann said. "Cleaning it up will take years."

American Pacific Corp., parent company of Pacific Engineering and Production Co., moved its manufacturing plant to Cedar City, Utah, after PEPCON exploded in 1988. Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp., still operating in Henderson, has plans to build a lined evaporation pond and then develop a way to remove perchlorate before it enters the water, Kerr-McGee plant manager Pat Corbett said.

Biological and chemical methods of ridding water of the chemical are under study, Corbett said.

The scientific concern about perchlorate in drinking water heightened last year after it was discovered in California's water supplies. Perchlorate then was traced up the Colorado River and to the Las Vegas Wash.

California set a guideline of 18 parts per billion for drinking water. That's equal to 18 drops of perchlorate dropped into an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Nevada has no guideline and the chemical is not regulated by state or federal agencies.

California's guideline is no guarantee that perchlorate will not cause harm to a growing fetus or small child, said Annie Jarabek, an Environmental Protection Agency toxicologist. "I think it is a highly uncertain number," she said.

Eight studies costing $2.2 million are underway in rats and in humans to determine what level perchlorate may harm thyroid glands. Perchlorate battles iodine inside the gland. Some results should be available in September, she said.

For the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation at the end of the Colorado River in Arizona, potential harm to children is the major concern, said Earl Hawes, environmental manager for the tribe. "I hope we are going to learn from the past," he said.

Kevin Mayer, EPA project manager in San Francisco, assured him it was a priority.

"Perchlorate as a major issue that will not go away until we get some good answers to these questions," he said.

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