The first water standard in the nation for chromium-6 has drawn fire from Erin Brockovich and residents of the town the movie about her made famous. And water providers, the chemical industry and consumer protection groups also aren’t thrilled with the new standard.
On Tuesday, the California Department of Public Health submitted its final decision to regulate the cancer-causing chemical made famous for its disruption of the community of Hinkley and the film “Erin Brockovich.”
With the decision will come the nation’s first limit on chromium-6 in water, at 10 parts per billion – far stricter than the nation’s current standard for total chromium, at 100 parts per billion, but much less than a standard proposed for chromium-6 as a goal long ago by the state.
“It’s bittersweet,” Brockovich said Wednesday. “I certainly feel disappointed that they did not set the (maximum contaminant level) closer to the public health goal of .02 parts per billion.”
Brockovich’s comments referred to the public health goal of 0.02 parts per billion of chromium-6 in drinking water set by CalEPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in July 2011.
“But we should all be proud of the work we have done,” Brockovich said.
Dr. Ron Chapman, California Department of Public Health director and state health officer, said that the standard of 10 parts per billion for chromium-6 “will protect public health while taking into consideration economic and technical feasibility as required by law.”
The new drinking-water standard will take effect on July 1.
The federal standard is for total chromium, which is comprised of the known carcinogen chromium-6, and its more benign cousin chromium-3.
The 10 parts per billion chromium-6 standard will replace the existing state limit 50 parts per billion of total chromium in drinking water.
The public health goal is the level of chromium-6 in water that does not pose a health hazard. It is intended to be used by the California Department of Public Health as it balances health concerns and costs to determine the appropriate enforceable water standard.
The MCL is 500 times greater than the public health goal. But physically, it’s a very small amount.
In the early 1990s, Brockovich successfully led an effort that forced Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to pay a $333 million out-of-court settlement to about 650 Hinkley residents.
From 1952 to 1964, chromium-6 contaminated water at PG&E’s Hinkley natural gas compressor station was periodically dumped into unlined ponds, where the heavy metal seeped into the groundwater, where much of it remains today.
The new standard, while more stringent than the former state standard for chromium, was met with disappointment from High Desert residents to industry.
“I know this irritates a lot of cities with chromium-6 in its water, but any carcinogen should have a lot less that 10 parts per billion in water,” said Lester White, a longtime Hinkley resident and community leader. “Access to good, clean water shouldn’t be a privilege, it should be a right.”
National Resources Defense Council Attorney Avinash Kar said the “California Department of Public Health’s long-delayed action … simply does not provide enough protection for people’s health.
“The department both inflated water treatment costs and underestimated the benefits of a stronger standard to justify its proposal.”
Jack Porrelli, spokesman for the Coachella Valley Water District, said there was no way the water agency for 110,000 customers will be ready to meet the new standard on July 1.
As many as half of the district’s water wells have naturally occurring chromium-6 as high as 21 parts per billion.
It is estimated that the agency will need to spend $450 million building treatment facilities that will boost the typical water bill by $50 monthly, he said.
The city of Glendale, which has chromium-6 in its water from industrial sources and his pioneered remediation techniques, won’t be impacted with the new standard, said Tom Lorenz, city spokesman.
Glendale limits its chromium-6 levels to 5 parts per billion by cleaning polluted water and blending it with imported water.
Officials from industry were also disappointed in the standard, but for different reasons.
“We are extremely disappointed that the state of California has ignored findings from the best available research on chromium in drinking water,” said Bryan Goodman, spokesman for the American Chemistry Council.
“This has resulted in CDPH moving ahead with an overly restrictive and costly MCL that will provide little to no additional public health protection to the existing California standard,” he said.
“Fourteen peer-reviewed papers have been published about the effects of exposure to low levels of hexavalent chromium in drinking water. This research indicates that the new MCL in California will be well below the level necessary to protect public health,” he added.
The result means that “financially strapped utilities across the state will now be forced to expend a great deal of resources to address exceptionally low levels of a chemical that occurs naturally in drinking water supplies,” Goodman said.
