What are the impacts of unnecessarily restrictive standards?
The costs of an overly restrictive (i.e., more restrictive than what credible science says is necessary to protect public health) drinking water standard for perchlorate are potentially staggering. California, Nevada and Arizona could be the states most impacted. Overly strict standards would in effect create a “problem” where one does not really exist, – forcing citizens, industry and government to incur significant expenses for new treatment plants, retrofitting existing treatment plants, purchasing additional water supplies, lowering reservoir levels and pumping more groundwater from existing sources. This could not only be a substantial expense of resources that could lead to no public health benefit, it could also contribute to a significant water shortage crisis as water supplies are closed because they do not meet the new standards.
