A manmade chemical that exists in 71 percent of Long Island’s water districts may be cancerous, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation wants the EPA to set a standard for it.
1,4-Dioxane is found in deodorant and shampoo. Citizens Campaign for the Environment Executive Director Adrienne Esposito said the public needs to know how much of it is safe to drink.
“We need a better guideline, we need a drinking water standard that is based on protecting the public’s health, and not one that is a generic standard for all things that we just don’t have a standard for.”
Department of Environmental Conservation Regional Director Carrie Gallagher said a set standard would protect Long Island residents, “meaning that water suppliers cannot distribute water into the public water supply system at a level above whatever that standard is.”
Gallagher says that three million Long Islanders rely on well water.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said if the EPA does not respond in three months, the state will set the standard itself.