DWI/Defra Awards NCET New Contract to Monitor Perchlorate in Raw and Drinking Water

Perchlorate (as the ammonium salt) is the primary ingredient of solid rocket propellant, but it is also used to treat hyperthyroidism (as the potassium salt), for plating metals and as an oxidant (as perchloric acid), and in laboratory studies on ion formation (as the perchlorate ion). It is also an impurity in some forms of nitrate fertiliser. Perchlorate has been detected in drinking water in a number of countries including USA and Japan. Risk assessments conducted in the USA have indicated that setting health-based standards may be necessary. Currently no such guidelines or standards have been set by WHO, US EPA or UK bodies.

NCET has recently been awarded a contract with the Drinking Water Inspectorate / Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DWI/Defra) to review the data on Perchlorate levels in UK waters and assess its usage, and undertake a programme of monitoring raw and drinking water in England and Wales to assess the prevalence of Perchlorate. This project is expected to be completed in 2009.