Economic Impact

Economic Impact

With an EPA reference dose in place, federal regulators may decide to proceed with a national drinking water standard for perchlorate. This decision could cost tax payers millions, and do very little to safeguard public health in America.

"The result [of extremely restrictive risk assessment practices that result in very costly treatment and remediation activities] is the diversion of public and private dollars into unnecessary risk management efforts and away from more immediate, real, health-related programs."
— La Donna White, president, Capitol Medical Society, Sacramento, California.

Costs could be staggering

In an effort to meet overly strict perchlorate standards, taxpayers, industry, agriculture, and local, state, and federal governments would face staggering costs associated with a range of new treatment and remediation programs, including:

• Building new treatment plants
• Retrofitting existing treatment plants
• Buying additional water supplies
• Lowering reservoir levels
• Pumping more groundwater from existing sources

Impact on Local Economies

Overly strict standards for perchlorate would unnecessarily force water supply closures, causing water shortages, particularly in drought seasons. Lack of available water would postpone or cancel plans for new housing and business centers, impacting local economies and job markets. Residential areas and businesses would suffer as water shortages forced water rationing and utility rate hikes.

Impact on Agriculture

Overly restrictive standards not required to protect public health would hurt farmers by making their irrigation water scarcer and more expensive. Even more alarming, worried consumers across the country and abroad might avoid buying the crops these farmers grow, causing loss of farming jobs, harm to family farms, loss of jobs to foreign countries, devastation to commodity markets, and closure of local agricultural businesses. If farmers are hard hit, taxpayers may have to provide additional federal financial support and the U.S. Department of Agriculture could face adverse impacts on farm exports.

Costs to government and taxpayers

The costs associated with an overly strict federal perchlorate standard would be significant. NASA and the Department of Defense, for example, are already working to clean up perchlorate at some sites. An overly strict standard could potentially double NASA's cleanup costs and add significant costs to the Department of Defense's cleanup efforts. Worse, an overly strict standard could contribute to additional military base closures in California, as bases become unusable for rocket and missile testing, combat training with live fire, etc.

As local taxpayers, governments and industry shoulder some of the cost of perchlorate removal there will be less money available for genuine public health needs. Programs to help people with diabetes, cancer, and other real health concerns may face funding cuts as public dollars are moved into perchlorate removal projects that provide no real public health benefit.

Learn more by exploring the "Study on Economic Impacts of Alternative Drinking Water Standards for California" »

This study was commissioned and funded by Aerojet and Lockheed Martin, members of the Perchlorate Information Bureau.

Learn more by viewing the abstract of a report by the American Water Works Association, "National Cost Implications of a Perchlorate Regulation" »