Representatives Al Wynn (D-MD), the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials, and Hilda Solis (D-CA), the Vice Chair of the Subcommittee, are calling for a probe into a number of issues that affect American's water and health. In a letter to the General Accounting Office (GAO), the lawmakers asked GAO to investigate bottled water, TCE, and the EPA's rule-setting for other contaminants.

You can read more about the full range of investigation requests in the official press release. Here, we are focused on the TCE-specific portion:

Wynn and Solis are also asking the Government Accountability Office to examine EPA’s failure to update its current drinking water standard for Trichloroethylene (TCE). An EPA 2001 assessment found TCE was far more likely to cause cancer than previously believed. Despite this assessment and a recommendation from the National Academy of Science, EPA has failed to update its national drinking water standard for TCE.

“The evidence of the dangers of TCE keep piling up and the EPA keeps failing to act,” Wynn added. “Hopefully, GAO can shed some much needed light on the reasons for EPA’s inaction.”

The EPA’s current drinking water standard for TCE allows a maximum of 5 parts per billion, but some have called for a revision of that standard to reduce the maximum amount of TCE allowed in water.

From the text of the letter sent to GAO [PDF], we learn even more:

[We] request that GAO review the EPA’s failure to update it current drinking water standard for Trichloroethylene (TCE) following its August 2001 draft risk assessment entitled “Trichloroethylene Health Risk Assessment: Synthesis and Characterization.” The EPA 2001 assessment found that TCE was far more likely to cause cancer than EPA had previously believed. We note that in July 2006, the National Academy of Science (NAS) found “that the evidence on carcinogenic risk and other health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene has strengthened since 2001” and recommended “that federal agencies finalize their risk assessment with currently available data so that risk management decisions can be made expeditiously.” EPA does not appear, however, to have acted consistently with respect to the findings and recommendations of these major scientific studies to protect the public health.

In conducting your review of the regulatory review process, and associated issues specific to TCE, please examine the following issues:

1. The extent to which EPA’s efforts to revise the TCE drinking water standard complies with the Safe Drinking Water Act’s requirements, and facilitate improvements to public health protection.


2. The obstacles, if any, that have interfered with EPA’s ability to expeditiously revise its standards for TCE.


3. The latest research and what it suggests about TCE’s effects on human health and the environment, including information from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s study related to Camp Lejeune.


4. The number of Department of Defense sites contaminated with TCE and the Department’s role, if any, in delaying or interfering with EPA efforts to update a drinking water standard for TCE.

Of course, we already know part of the publicly-accepted answer to #4: There are 1,400 military sites contaminated with TCE. We have reason to believe the actual number may be higher - more on this, and DOD's interference, another time.