Support TCE Reduction ACT

TCE poisons.

This widely used industrial solvent (degreaser) causes liver and kidney cancer, reproductive problems, birth defects, headaches among many things. In many communities located near industrial sites, it is in our water, our soil and our air.

New studies keep showing how dangerous it is. The EPA is doing nothing. Finally, some Congresspeople have taken note and drafted the 'TCE Reduction Act'. Please ask your Senator for support

The Act establishes that the EPA must: (here for complete text)

* Publish a health advisory for TCE that fully protects, with an adequate margin for safety, the health of susceptible populations;

* Propose and impose a national primary drinking water standard that protects sensitive populations and is set as close to the maximum contaminant level goal for trichloroethylene as is feasible (note: MCLG for TCE is 0ppb);

* Enforce the requirement that all qualified drinking water monitoring systems accommodate the new drinking water standards proposed and imposed above;

* Require monitoring of water supplies currently in the path or proximity of migrating TCE;

* Require that Consumer Confidence Reports include the known health risks of TCE exposure and detail any TCE discovered in the monitored water supplies.

With respect to Vapor Intrusion, the EPA must:
* Publish a health advisory for TCE that fully protects thehealth of susceptible populations from vapor intrusion (again, with an adequate margin for safety);

* Establish an integrated risk information system reference concentration of TCE vapor that protects sensitive populations and apply it to potential vapor intrusion-related investigations or actions carried out under CERCLA.

SWU's letter...

Dear Senator Hutchison:

One of the largest plumes of trichloroethylene (TCE) in the nation moves through the shallow groundwater beneath tens of thousands of homes in San Antonio. Stemming from the former Kelly Air Force Base, this plume of TCE threatens the health of the community, which is plagued with an increased rate of leukemia, liver, and breast cancer; Leon Creek; and the purity of the Edwards Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for San Antonio. Your office at Port San Antonio is very close to several of the most contaminated source areas, where the liquid layer of TCE has measured over two feet deep.

The day before yesterday Senators Clinton, Kerry, Boxer, Dole and Lautenburg introduced the “TCE Reduction Act” (S.1911) directing the Environmental Protection Agency to set revised standards for TCE in a timely manner. I urge you to support this bill and ensure its passage for the health of your community here in southwest San Antonio, as well as the many Texas communities affected by TCE contamination.

The bill is absolutely necessary. In a draft Risk Assessment in 2001, the EPA found TCE to be as much as 40 times more carcinogenic than previously thought. A subsequent review ordered by the Bush Administration and released by the National Research Council (NRC) in 2006 confirmed EPA’s scientific findings, and furthermore found that "the evidence on carcinogenic risk and other health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene has strengthened since 2001." Despite the consensus among the scientific community that new TCE standards need to be set in order to protect our health, EPA has failed to act or set a timeline. According to its website, EPA does not plan to release a revised standard until the end of 2010.

New TCE standards are long overdue, and have huge implications for the Kelly community. Without guidance from the EPA, clean-up plans operate under the current, outdated standards for TCE and will not be adequate to protect the health and future of this community. The TCE Reduction Act also requires EPA to issue a health advisory standard for vapor intrusion into homes from contaminated groundwater and soil. Residents’ homes in the Kelly area have never been tested for TCE vapors, but evidence of dangerous vapor concentrations from other sites with lower levels of contamination than Kelly suggests the real possibility that families here are breathing contaminated air as TCE volatilizes from the shallow aquifer, which in some areas is only 3 feet below the surface. Guidance from EPA is particularly critical because in the absence of standards for vapor intrusion, the Air Force will continue to ignore this important route of exposure.

Please let me know what the Senator’s position and actions will be in regards to this bill.

Sincerely,