Absent federal benchmark, advocates praise state for setting a limit
By Jon Hurdle, NJ Spotlight
Environmental activists welcomed a new recommendation by state scientists to regulate a toxic chemical, calling it the latest evidence of New Jersey’s efforts to curb contaminants in drinking water.
The Drinking Water Quality Institute, a panel of scientists and water company executives that advises the Department of Environmental Protection, has recommended one of the nation’s strictest standards for 1,4 dioxane, which is commonly used in solvents, paint strippers, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. The chemical is unregulated by the federal government even though the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calls it a “likely” carcinogen.
The panel said DEP should set a Maximum Contaminant Limit (MCL) of 0.33 parts per billion (ppb) in drinking water as the upper limit for safe consumption by humans. The standard is based on the risk of one person in a million getting cancer if exposed to 0.35 parts per billion over a lifetime.
If confirmed, the proposed regulation would require water companies to keep their supplies below that level, if necessary installing technology that would control the chemical. DEP Commissioner Catherine McCabe asked the water quality panel in December 2018 to develop a recommendation for that maximum limit.
Limits on other chemicals
It was the latest action by the panel which in the last six years has recommended tough limits on three kinds of PFAS chemicals, which are also linked to cancer, as well as immune system disorders and other health conditions. All the earlier recommendations have been accepted by DEP and are now the basis of regulations that have established New Jersey as a national leader in protecting public health from the chemicals.
The latest proposal is a “really important recommendation,” said Tracy Carluccio of the environmental group Delaware Riverkeeper Network and a long-time campaigner for tighter regulation of chemicals in drinking water. She said the proposed limit is stricter than in most of the 13 states that already have a drinking water or groundwater health standard for the chemical.
But she urged the DEP to act quickly on the proposal to minimize the time that consumers are exposed to the chemical. Its recent regulation of PFAS chemicals has taken as much as three years to be finalized after the initial recommendation by water quality panel.
“We don’t want there to be a delay in the DEP rulemaking and the adoption of a MCL because we’ve got to get this very dangerous material out of people’s drinking water,” Carluccio said.
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