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WASHINGTON — The Bush administration, under fire for scrapping former President Clinton’s standard for arsenic in drinking water, announced plans Wednesday to set a new standard within nine months. 

Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said she was asking the National Academy of Sciences to examine the impact of a range of possible reductions. The new standard could be higher or lower than that set by Clinton. 

President Bush drew heavy criticism from environmentalists and others last month when his EPA killed a Clinton administration regulation that would have tightened the standard to no more than 10 parts of arsenic per billion in drinking water. The current standard, set in 1942, is 50 parts per billion. 

Whitman said she wanted a panel of scientists at the academy to examine a standard in the range of three to 20 parts per billion. “The Bush administration is committed to protecting the environment and the health of all Americans,” Whitman said in a written statement, promising a final regulation within nine months. 

She said the decision to seek a report from the academy would “ensure that a standard will be put in place in a timely manner that provides clean, safe and affordable drinking water for the nation and is based on the best science.” 

Senate Democrats called attention to the delay in tightening the arsenic standard, and Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the senior Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, questioned its legality. 

“I am troubled by the notion that EPA would ignore a federal law requiring that a new arsenic standard be established by June 22,” he said.  

“There has been no consultation with Congress and no mention of meeting the federally mandated time frame for this action to take place.” 

The Bush administration’s decision on March 20 to stop the regulation put into place three days before Clinton left office created an uproar, and the latest action drew further criticism. 

“That is a huge step backward, no matter how they try to spin it,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. “The Bush administration should be ashamed that it has taken this course and all the more ashamed 

that it was announced on this Earth  

Day weekend.” 

Whitman argued there was insufficient scientific evidence to justify the $200 million annual cost to municipalities, states and industry of meeting the new Clinton standards by 2006. 

“I have said consistently that we will obtain the necessary scientific review ... and that we will establish that standard in a timely manner,” she said Wednesday. 

In 1999, the National Academy of Sciences said that arsenic in drinking water can cause bladder, lung and skin cancer, and might cause liver and kidney cancer. 

The study found a cancer risk of one in 100 at the current 50 parts per billion standard, dropping to one in 250 at 20 parts per billion, one in 500 at 10 parts per billion and one in 1,667 at three parts per billion. 

Arsenic is both a naturally occurring substance and industrial byproduct, entering the water supply from natural deposits and pollution. It is found at high concentrations in Western mining states and other areas heavy with coal-burning and copper smelting. 

Physicians for Social Responsibility said the new study will only confirm what science has already shown: the lower the standard, the better. 

“There is no safe level of arsenic,” said Robert K. Musil, the group’s director. “A mountain of existing research - including a new report on the dangers of low-levels of exposure published just last month - shows that the safest standard the United States can adopt is the lowest one: three parts per billion.” 

The Clinton EPA had initially proposed setting the standard at five parts per billion last year in response to a lawsuit by the Natural Resources Defense Council, but then settled at 10 parts per billion. 

Environmentalists, who have argued for years that the arsenic standard should be stricter, criticized the EPA on Wednesday for putting off a final decision. 

“We’re outraged that this is going to assure a year of delays for protection of public health for millions of Americans,” said Erik D. Olson, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. 

He and other environmentalists said the parameters set by Whitman showed that the EPA was headed toward settling at 20 parts per billion — double the Clinton standard. 

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On the Net: 

EPA Office of Water: http://www.epa.gov/ow 

Natural Resources Defense Council: http://www.nrdc.org 

Physicians for Social Responsibility: http://www.psr.org