November 26, 2007--Panel questions failure to study tainted water (LA Times)
A House committee is demanding to know why federal regulators failed to assess potential public health damage from extremely high levels of a toxic industrial solvent found in Southern California drinking water before the mid-1980s. Trichloroethylene, widely used in the defense industry, was discovered in aquifers under the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys, which supplied drinking water to nearly 2 million residents. Across the nation, the chemical is one of the most widespread water contaminants. A letter sent today to the chief of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry by the House Energy and Commerce Committee said the agency failed to conduct the recommended health evaluations in communities across the nation, an apparent lapse that went unnoticed for more than a decade.
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