We’re confused about why State Assemblyman John Laird’s advice
regarding a backyard perchlorate experiment upset some San Martin
residents.
We’re confused about why State Assemblyman John Laird’s advice regarding a backyard perchlorate experiment upset some San Martin residents.
“I just worry about what (the experiment and its results) might mean for agriculture here and how it might not be representative of the entire area and what’s going on. I just hope people are judicious when that unfolds and the information is released to the public,” Laird told a San Martin Neighborhood Alliance gathering.
Laird is right to be concerned. Agriculture – a big business in South Santa Clara County – has a lot at risk in the perchlorate debacle. If the results of a backyard experiment conducted by San Martin resident Bob Cerruti to compare the amount of perchlorate in tomatoes watered with perchlorate-tainted well water versus tomatoes watered with bottled water are taken out of context, the entire industry might suffer.
No matter what the results of Cerruti’s science-fair-level experiment, it will leave many more important questions unanswered:
• What is a safe level of perchlorate in tomatoes in a typical diet?
• How much perchlorate do other crops retain?
• What is a safe level of perchlorate in those crops?
• And of course, thanks in large measure to the Pentagon and defense industry businesses trying to handcuff the Environmental Protection Agency, we still don’t know the answer to the most basic question: What is a safe level of perchlorate in drinking water?
We don’t fault Cerruti for conducting his backyard experiment on his tomatoes. That’s what people do to an information vacuum – they fill it. The problem is that without properly conducted studies, the results of Cerruti’s tomato experiment are both suspect and woefully insufficient.
The perchlorate information vacuum is unacceptable. Since the 1950s, doctors have known that perchlorate damaged thyroid function and water regulators have been worried about the chemical polluting the groundwater.
There are at least 75 other perchlorate-contaminated sites in 22 states. South Valley is not the first, nor, likely, the last community to deal with perchlorate-contaminated water supplies.
Yet, despite decades to conduct studies, the EPA recently announced it needs another seven years to find out how much perchlorate is too much.
And so, you have people like Bob Cerruti conducting backyard science experiments, because they are desperate for answers. His experiment follows the April release of the results of a small Texas Tech/Environmental Working Group survey that showed lettuce grown in the Imperial Valley had an average perchlorate level of 70 parts per billion. Incredibly, the Texas Tech study was the first to look at perchlorate levels in retail produce.
The fate of multimillion-dollar industries employing thousands of people and feeding millions of people hang in the balance, hoping that the inadequate backyard experiments don’t ruin them.
We continue to urge the EPA to set a perchlorate standard in the very near future – not decades from now, as defense industry lobbyists would prefer. We continue to urge readers and federal representatives to support California Sen. Barbara Boxer’s bill that would set a deadline for the notoriously slow EPA to establish such a level.
And in the meantime, we urge everyone to take a deep breath when Bob Cerruti tells us the perchlorate level in his tomatoes and remember: We need so much more information than his tomatoes can tell us.
