Is perchlorate a problem in Arizona?
Perchlorate has been found in Arizona at several industrial sites around military bases and at facilities catering to the defense and the aerospace industry. These sites are contaminated with perchlorate and other pollutants. ADEQ’s Waste Programs Division has remediation oversight for these facilities which include: Navajo Army Depot at Bellemont; Apache Nitrogen near St. David; and Universal Propulsion and Phoenix-Goodyear Airport facilities in the metropolitan Phoenix area. Low levels of perchlorate have also been found in some drinking water supplies which use Colorado River water as source water. In 1999, ADEQ directed a monitoring effort throughout the state and the Southwest. The study consisted of 112 samples collected from numerous locations including Lake Mead, the Colorado River mainstem, the Central Arizona Program (CAP) canal, groundwater recharge projects and community drinking water supplies. Results showed levels ranging from 480 parts per billion (ppb) in Lake Mead to
