Who needs clean drinking water anyway? Clearly burying chemicals underground is the answer and it is always best to leave problems like this for future generations to discover. We can also sleep well at night knowing that the US Army Corps of Engineers is not trying to cover its ass.
A more refined test of the water in the Washington Aqueduct has revealed the presence of perchlorate, a toxic chemical typically found in weapons and explosives, federal officials said yesterday.
The discovery of the chemical in the water supply challenges the prevailing theory of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has argued that contamination from buried World War I munitions in the Spring Valley neighborhood to the north poses no threat to Dalecarlia Reservoir along MacArthur Avenue NW.
Thomas P. Jacobus, chief of the Washington Aqueduct, said perchlorate in the reservoir measured between 1.2 and 1.8 parts per billion (ppb) and did not pose a health risk.
Perchlorate -- a chemical that disrupts the thyroid and is linked to hormonal dysfunction, developmental delays and infertility -- is considered a health risk to humans. The EPA has said perchlorate could harm humans at levels of 1 ppb.
