Pentagon Fights Wisconsin Water Standards for Toxic Explosive

MERRIMAC, Wisconsin, September 28, 2007 (ENS) - The Pentagon intends to challenge the state of Wisconsin's intention to regulate all forms of the explosive dinitrotoluene, DNT, Army officials announced on Monday.

Wisconsin is the first state in the nation to establish health-based guidelines for the military toxic that has contaminated groundwater and dozens of private wells near the Badger Army Ammunition Plant.

At a public meeting this week, local Army officials said that they have asked the Undersecretary of the Army for Environment, Safety, and Occupation Health to help contest the health-based guidelines issued by the Wisconsin Division of Public Health and the anticipated adoption of drinking water and groundwater regulations by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for certain isomers of DNT.

The Pentagon recognizes that Wisconsin is setting a national precedent that could not only result in additional cleanup requirements at the Badger plant but could also prompt re-examination of cleanups at hundreds of other military sites contaminated with DNT.

The Army is challenging an interim Health Advisory Level published by the Wisconsin Division of Public Health earlier this summer.

The advisory, which was drafted by the agency’s senior toxicologist, recommends that the summed concentrations of all DNT isomers should not exceed 0.05 parts per billion (ppb) in drinking water. The recommended threshold also serves as an interim groundwater standard for Wisconsin.

"This would first time that any state has not only required the Army to look for these these other isomers but set a standard for these other isomers and then required the Army to clean the groundwater," said Laura Olah, executive director of the nonprofit group Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger.

DNT is a toxic chemical mixture that is used in the manufacture of munitions. It is most commonly found as a mixture of six isomers of DNT. Wisconsin has drinking water standard for the two isomers of DNT (2,4-DNT and 2,6-DNT). The acceptable threshold for both is 0.05 ppb.

Standards for the four other isomers of DNT have not been established by Wisconsin or any other state. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also not established a drinking water standard for these isomers.

Wisconsin seeks to regulate the less common forms of DNT which have tainted dozens of drinking water wells near the Badger plant, affecting rural families in the townships of Merrimac, Sumpter, and Prairie du Sac. Without a standard, the state is limited in its ability to require the Defense Department to clean up groundwater and nearby residential wells.

At the Deterrent Burning Grounds, a hazardous waste site at Badger Army Ammunition Plant, the concentration of 3,4-DNT in groundwater is currently 3.98 ppb and 2,3-DNT concentrations are 1.16 ppb.

The total concentrations of these less common isomers are more than 100 times the safe drinking water guidelines recommended the Wisconsin Division of Public Health. By comparison, 2,4-DNT and 2,6-DNT are both found at levels less than 0.05 ppb in the same groundwater monitoring well.

Olah says, "What does this mean for people? You're going to drink the water, you're pregnant and you don't have a lot of information. A standard is clearly needed for these other isomers of DNT."

The Army contends there is so little information a guideline cannot even be formulated. The Wisconsin Division of Health says there is very little information, but there is enough to make standards for each of the other DNT isomers.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.