Register for a Free Webinar: Perchlorate – What It Is and How to Remove It from Drinking Water

A free webinar for household water well owners, Perchlorate — What It is and How to Remove it from Drinking Water, will be held Tuesday, September 27, at 1 p.m. ET by the National Ground Water Association.  To learn more or to register, click here  The webinar will cover the following topics:

• What perchlorate is: Perchlorate contamination has been recognized in groundwater throughout the United States at sites where perchlorate has been manufactured, used, and stored. Many of these sites are associated with the military and aerospace industries where synthetic ammonium perchlorate has been used since the 1940s as a component of solid propellant fuels for rockets and missiles.

• Perchlorate occurrence: If a well is located in a region known to have this type of industrial activity, the groundwater may have been impacted. Also, some types of fertilizers have been linked to perchlorate presence—and disinfection of wells using household bleach also could introduce perchlorate into groundwater.

• Health risks: Ingestion of perchlorate affects iodine uptake by the human thyroid and thus thyroidal hormone production. However, the public health risk from perchlorate remains controversial.  EPA announced in 2011 its intention to regulate the allowable concentration of perchlorate in drinking water, though a federally designated maximum contaminant level has not yet been established.

Regulation: Two states have mandated maximum contaminant levels for perchlorate: 6 micrograms per liter in California and 2 micrograms per liter in Massachusetts. Other states have guidelines ranging from 1 to 18 micrograms per liter.