A
new report released today reveals that Goodrich Corporation, along with other
companies responsible for California
perchlorate pollution in drinking water, are funding a coordinated effort to
downplay the risks of contamination to public health.
The
new report, entitled The Politics of
Rocket Fuel Pollution: The Perchlorate Study Group and Its Industry Backers, describes
an effort reminiscent of tobacco industry tactics to stave off efforts to
regulate exposure to second-hand smoke.
Tactics employed by Goodrich and other perchlorate polluters include
commissioning studies that appear to have employed an experimental approach
inappropriate for determining the full health impacts of exposure to
contamination and even hiring the same public relations firm as Phillip Morris
did to run an anti-regulation campaign around second hand smoke.
“Instead
of spending on cleaning up the contamination it has leaked into
Rialto’s water supply,” stated Sujatha Jahagirdar report co-author and
Clean Water Advocate for
Environment California, “Goodrich is instead spending on efforts to
downplay
the health risks of rocket fuel pollution in drinking water.”
Between 1957
and 1963, Goodrich Corporation (then known as B.F. Goodrich) owned and operated
a rocket fuel manufacturing and processing facility in Rialto, a small working-class city located an
hour east of Los Angeles. During its tenure, the company produced rocket fuel for
the Loki, Sidewinder, ASP I and ASP II missiles. According to depositions given
by former employees, thousands of pounds of waste rocket fuel from the
manufacturing process were disposed of in a large unlined pit behind the Goodrich
facility. Federal and state officials believe that
the Goodrich facility and disposal pit into which thousands of pounds of the
chemical were dumped are a source of the perchlorate pollution that has
decimated the Rialto’s water supply. Although
contamination in Rialto’s drinking water supply was discovered nearly ten years ago,
Goodrich continues to delay cleanup, which experts say will total well over
$200 million.
“The residents
of Rialto are the victims of environmental
injustice--over 50 years the people of Rialto were drinking high levels of perchlorate
in their drinking water because of Goodrich, and for the last ten they have had
to bear the brunt of the cleanup costs.
Its far time that Goodrich stop investing money in getting of hook and
investing money in perchlorate cleanup,” said Davin Diaz, PASE Director at CCAEJ.
According to a
recent study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control exposure to
perchlorate at levels well below one drop in an Olympic-sized swimming pool can
lead to abnormal hormone levels in women who experience thyroid
deficiencies. Perchlorate exposure can
also lead to conditions such as attention deficit disorder, learning
disabilities and decreased IQ in infants.
Internal
emails, documents and a search of available research reveals that Goodrich
Corporation and other perchlorate polluters funded:
- A campaign for weak regulation of rocket fuel
spills, and not to ‘increase scientific and medical understanding of
perchlorate’s risk to human health,’ as described by the group’s mission;
- A public relations firm that downplayed concerns
about rocket fuel spills. This same
firm once performed a similar service for tobacco giant Phillip Morris;
- Scientific research that was then used to argue
that rocket fuel pollution was not a big concern. Perchlorate polluters like Goodrich
funded more than half of all studies directly addressing the health
effects of perchlorate exposure between 1996 and January 2005. Independent sources like the National
Institutes of Health funded less than 10 percent of the research.
