Question

New Jersey state lawmakers last year passed a bill that would have required the Drinking Water Institute to formulate a state regulation, known as a maximum contaminant level (MCL), for TCP. Governor Chris Christie refused to sign the bill. The discovery of the chemical 1,2,3- trichloropropane (TCP) in two public water wells has recently renewed concerns from residents in the Burlington County, NJ community.

a. Describe the situation in NJ.

b. Who do you think may be the major PRPs in this contamination?

c. Why do you think the governor refused to sign the bill?

Chemical 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) TCP is a man-made chemical, typically found at industrial or hazardous waste sites. Long-te kidney fail unregulated by the USEP rm exposure to it may cause ure, reduced body weight, and increased incidents of tumors in some orpans. This compound is currently ure reguu ontaminant Candidate List (CCL) is a list of contaminants that are currently not subject to any proposed or promulgated mational primary drinking water regulations, but are kno cancer. Hawaii is the only state that has a TCP MCL of 0.6 ug/L, TCP (CH,CI,) is a chlorinated hydrocarbon that is used a a degreasing and cleaning agent and industrial solvent. It was also used as a chemical in pesticides (soil fumigant) for low growing crops such as potatoes, tobacco, and beets. TCP passes through soil and leaches into ground water contaminating drinking water sources. It causes cancer in laboratory animals. It is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen (NTP, 2014), and probably carcinogenic to humans, based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals (IARC, 1995) In the 1940s, the agricultural divisions of Dow Chemical and Shell started selling two soil fumigants under the trade names of D-D and Telone to help farmers manage crop damaging nematodes. Because pesticides are meant to kill living organisms, they are by their nature, toxic. However one chemical in D-D and Telone was particularly toxic to humans and persistent in the environment Trichloropropane (TCP). Ironically, TCP was not the ingredient that killed the nematodes. It was instead a contaminant that occurred in the manufacture of the fumigants. While it was easily removable before the products went to market, Dow and Shell chose instead to leave it in and simply-and deceptively- registered it as an active ingredient. In other words, they falsely claimed that the contaminant was necessary to the effectiveness of their products. This was despite the fact that the companies already had scientific evidence that the chemical was dangerous to humans. TCP was banned from use in soil fumigants in the 1990s, By this time D-D had been taken off the market and Telone was reformulated. However, because the chemical does not bind to soil or break down easily in the environment, much of it had leached into groundwater over the decades and contaminated drinking water wells. Thousands of Californians are drinking and cooking with TCP just because two companies - who knew it was both dangerous and unnecessary to their product imply didn't bother to remove it. Exhibit 1: Physical and Chemical Properties of TCP (ATSDR 1992; DHHS 2011; Dombeck and Borg 2005; HSDB 2009) Property Value 96-18-4 Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Number cal Descr t room temperature) oloriess to straw-colored I CI Ci Molecular Water solubility at 147 43 1.750(slightly soluble TCP structure peciic gravity at 20/4 "C (g/cm Organic carbon-water partition coefficient flon Kee)1.70 to 1 99 (temperature dependent Abbreiations: olmol- gram per mole: mgh-miligrams per iter, "C-degrees Celsius gicm - grams per cubic 1.3889 98 to 2 27 (temper ature meter; mm Hg-milimeters of mercury, alm-m'mol-atmosphere-cubic meters per moke

Answer 1

a.) The situation in NJ is very crucial.The TCP is very harmful as it is carcinogenic too and thus there must be a control on it.The bill must be passed in NJ by the governor.

B). The major potentially responsible parties (PRP's) for this contamination are the industries and the pesticides forming companies .Also the regulating authorities are responsible for this contamination as they didn't checked the product and even when it was not needed for the regular function of the pesticides and could be removed,even then it was introduced in the market with TCP.

C).The governor is in the favour of industrialists and probably they were providing funding in the system .But it is clear that governor isn't doing his job to the best.