New Arsenic Standards Weighed

The Bush administration, under fire for scrapping former President Clinton’s standard for arsenic in drinking water, said Wednesday it would set a new standard within nine months.

Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said she is asking the National Academy of Sciences to examine the effect of a range of possible reductions. The new standard could be higher or lower than that set by Clinton.

President Bush drew heavy criticism from environmentalists and others last month when his EPA killed a Clinton administration regulation that would have tightened the standard to no more than 10 parts of arsenic per billion in drinking water. The current standard, set in 1942, is 50 parts per billion.

Whitman said she wants a panel of scientists at the academy to examine a standard in the range of 3 to 20 parts per billion.

“The Bush administration is committed to protecting the environment and the health of all Americans,” Whitman said in a written statement.

She said the decision to seek a report from the academy would “ensure that a standard will be put in place in a timely manner that provides clean, safe and affordable drinking water for the nation and is based on the best science.”

Senate Democrats called attention to the delay in tightening the arsenic standard, and Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the senior Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, questioned its legality.

“I am troubled by the notion that EPA would ignore a federal law requiring that a new arsenic standard be established by June 22,” he said. “There has been no consultation with Congress and no mention of meeting the federally mandated time frame for this action to take place.”

The Bush administration’s decision on March 20 to stop the regulation put into place three days before Clinton left office created an uproar, and the latest action drew further criticism.

“That is a huge step backward, no matter how they try to spin it,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). “The Bush administration should be ashamed that it has taken this course.”

Whitman argued there is insufficient scientific evidence to justify the $200-million annual cost to municipalities, states and businesses of meeting the Clinton standards by 2006.

“I have said consistently that we will obtain the necessary scientific review . . . and that we will establish that standard in a timely manner,” she said Wednesday.

The Bush administration plans to issue a regulation that still meets the same time frame for compliance as did the Clinton standard.

In 1999, the National Academy of Sciences said that arsenic in drinking water can cause bladder, lung and skin cancer, and might cause liver and kidney cancer.

The study found a cancer risk of 1 in 100 at 50 parts per billion standard, dropping to 1 in 250 at 20 ppb, 1 in 500 at 10 ppb, and 1 in 1,667 at 3 ppb.

Arsenic is both a naturally occurring substance and an industrial byproduct. It is found at high concentrations in Western mining states and other areas heavy with coal-burning and copper smelting.

Physicians for Social Responsibility said the new study will only confirm what science has shown: The lower the standard, the better.

“There is no safe level of arsenic,” said Robert K. Musil, the group’s director, urging a standard of 3 ppb.