WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump administration has rejected imposing federal drinking-water limits for a chemical used in fireworks and other explosives and linked to brain damage in newborns.
The administration has decided to override Obama-era findings that the neurotoxin perchlorate was contaminating the drinking water of millions of Americans.
A 2016 U.S. Geological Survey report ties high levels of perchlorate contamination in the water at Mount Rushmore national memorial in South Dakota with past years of fireworks displays there.
Officials stopped the fireworks shows a decade ago, but the pyrotechnics are set to resume this Independence Day holiday at the urging of President Donald Trump. He plans to attend the festivities on July 3.
