News Release from EPA

EPA Adds Corozal Well Site in Corozal, Puerto Rico

to the Superfund List

  

Contact: Elias Rodriguez, 212-637-3664, rodriguez.elias@epa.gov or Brenda Reyes, 787-977-5869, reyes.brenda@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y. – March 13, 2012) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has added the Corozal Well site in Barrio Palos Blancos, Corozal, Puerto Rico to its Superfund National Priorities List of the country’s most hazardous waste sites. Sampling at the site, which is in a rural area near the municipalities of Corozal and Naranjito, found that the chemical tetrachloroethylene or PCE is contaminating a well used to supply drinking water to local residents. Exposure to PCE, a solvent commonly used in industrial processes, can have serious effects of people’s health including liver damage and an increased risk of cancer. After discovering the contamination in 2010, the Puerto Rico Department of Health ordered the well closed. In March 2011, the EPA installed a treatment system on the well to remove the contaminants and provide the community with water that is safe to drink.

  

“Ensuring that people have a safe source of drinking water is essential to protecting public health and is an EPA priority,” said Judith A. Enck, EPA Regional Administrator. “By placing the Corozal Well site on the Superfund list, the EPA can do the extensive sampling needed to find the best ways to address the contamination and protect people’s health.”

The Corozal well, known locally as the Santana well, serves a small, rural population that is not connected to the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority public water supply system. Ground water samples collected in 2010 and 2011 confirmed the presence of PCE in the well. The EPA has not yet identified the source of the ground water contamination.

Nationwide, EPA is proposing to add 10 other sites to the Superfund list today and is designating nine others as final on the list. The EPA periodically proposes sites to the Superfund list and, after responding to public comments, designates them as final Superfund sites. The Superfund final designation makes them eligible for funds to conduct long-term cleanups. The Corozal Well site is now designated as final on the Superfund list.

The EPA does an extensive search to identify and locate the parties potentially responsible for the contamination at all sites on the Superfund list. The agency requires responsible parties to pay for or perform the cleanup work with EPA oversight. The majority of Superfund cleanups are performed by or paid for by polluters. Taxpayer dollars are used to cover EPA cleanup costs when no responsible party can be identified.

For more information, visit: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm.

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Final Health Assessment for Perc

News release from EPA:

CONTACT:

Latisha Petteway (News Media Only)

petteway.latisha@epa.gov

202-564-3191

202-564-4355

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 10, 2012

EPA Releases Final Health Assessment for Tetrachloroethylene (Perc)

Public health protections remain in place

WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted the final health assessment for tetrachloroethylene – also known as perchloroethylene, or perc – to EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) database. Perc is a chemical solvent widely used in the dry cleaning industry. It is also used in the cleaning of metal machinery and to manufacture some consumer products and other chemicals. Confirming longstanding scientific understanding and research, the final assessment characterizes perc as a “likely human carcinogen.” The assessment provides estimates for both cancer and non-cancer effects associated with exposure to perc over a lifetime.

EPA does not believe that wearing clothes dry cleaned with perc will result in exposures which pose a risk of concern. EPA has already taken several significant actions to reduce exposure to perc. EPA has clean air standards for dry cleaners that use perc, including requirements that will phase-out the use of perc by dry cleaners in residential buildings by December 21, 2020. EPA also set limits for the amount of perc allowed in drinking water and levels for cleaning up perc at Superfund sites throughout the country, which will be updated in light of the IRIS assessment.  

“The perc health assessment released today will provide valuable information to help protect people and communities from exposure to perc in soil, water and air,” said Paul Anastas, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development. “This assessment emphasizes the value of the IRIS database in providing strong science to support government officials as they make decisions to protect the health of the American people.”

The toxicity values reported in the perc IRIS assessment will be considered in:

·        Establishing cleanup levels at the hundreds of Superfund sites where perc is a contaminant
·         Revising EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level for perc as part of the carcinogenic volatile organic compounds group in drinking water, as described in the agency’s drinking water strategy
·         Evaluating whether to propose additional limits on the emissions of perc into the atmosphere, since perc is considered a hazardous air pollutant under the Clean Air Act

The assessment replaces the 1988 IRIS assessment for perc and for the first time includes a hazard characterization for cancer effects. This assessment has undergone several levels of rigorous, independent peer review including: agency review, interagency review, public comment, and external peer review by the National Research Council. All major review comments have been addressed.

EPA continues to strengthen IRIS as part of an ongoing effort to ensure the best possible science is used to protect human health and the environment. In May 2009, EPA streamlined the IRIS process to increase transparency, ensure the timely publication of assessments, and reinforce independent review. In July 2011, EPA announced further changes to strengthen the IRIS program in response to recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences. EPA’s peer review process is designed to elicit the strongest possible critique to ensure that each final IRIS assessment reflects sound, rigorous science.

More information on the perc IRIS assessment: http://www.epa.gov/iris/subst/0106.htm

More information on perc: http://epa.gov/oppt/existingchemicals/pubs/perchloroethylene_fact_sheet.html

More information on IRIS: http://www.epa.gov/IRIS