GOVERNOR VETO ON PERCHLORATE BILL MEASURE WOULD HAVE TIGHTENED RULES FOR CHEMICALS IN DRINKING WATER.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

The governor vetoed a bill this week that would have allowed the state Department of Health Services to tighten standards for perchlorate and other chemicals in drinking water.

The veto came late Thursday, three weeks after attorneys for Whittaker-Bermite, owners of a 996-acre contaminated site in Saugus, urged it.

Four wells used for drinking water in the Santa Clarita Valley have been shut down because of high levels of perchlorate, a rocket fuel residue that scientists believe leached into the groundwater from decades of defense testing at Bermite.

Perchlorate has been linked to thyroid disorders.

The bill by Sen. Nell Soto, D-Ontario, would have allowed state health officials to give greater weight to health effects in setting drinking-water standards. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the measure, Senate Bill 187, ``ignores the necessity to consider economic and technological feasibility'' when adopting those standards.

State law enforces maximum contaminant levels in drinking water but cannot tighten those without measuring the public health benefits against the costs, Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

``Although I support the intent of SB 187 to protect the public's drinking water supply, the bill ignores the deliberative scientific process that must be part of the development of any drinking water standard,'' the statement said.

Soto countered in a statement that the governor in his veto ``has chosen to help polluters instead of protecting the public health.''

``His claim that SB 187 `ignores the deliberative scientific process' for developing drinking water standards is nonsense, when in fact my bill sought to add science to a process that currently gives too much weight to the economics of cleanup.

``And the governor's rejection of SB 187 is a blow to the communities that have groundwater contaminated with perchlorate, such as Rialto, Morgan Hill and Santa Clarita.''

In an earlier interview, Soto said she hoped the governor would sign the bill. She wasn't surprised that Whittaker had opposed it, calling the company ``principally responsible'' for the contamination being cleaned up in Santa Clarita.

SB 187 would have made minor changes in the process used for developing drinking water standards. The changes would be options, not mandates, that the Department of Health Services and a branch of the California Environmental Protection Agency would follow.

In his Sept. 6 letter to Schwarzenegger, Whittaker-Bermite attorney Eric Lardiere's called Soto's bill costly and ``premature and burdensome'' to industry.

The Assembly approved SB 187 on a vote of 46-31 on Aug. 23, and the Senate, 29-11, six days later.