SACRAMENTO, CA — The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment on August 20 proposed a health goal of 0.06 parts per billion (ppb) for hexavalent chromium compounds (containing chromium in the +6 oxidation state) in drinking water, according to an August 21 San Francisco Chronicle article.

This proposed health goal, which is not an enforceable standard, makes California the first in the nation to take steps toward setting an enforceable maximum drinking water level for the chemical made famous by the 2000 film “Erin Brockovich.” The movie chronicles a lawyer’s crusade on behalf of citizens of a small California town battling a cover-up involving chromium 6-contaminated water.

It has been known for about 20 years that chromium 6 is carcinogenic when inhaled. In February, National Toxicology Program scientists concluded at the end of a two-year animal study that chromium 6 also is carcinogenic in drinking water, as WaterTech Online® reported.

The proposed California health goal is subject to further review and public comment, the Chronicle reported.

Sam Delson, deputy director for external and legislative affairs at the California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment Office, is quoted in a August 21 Los Angeles Times story saying the process of setting a state standard for chromium 6 may take several more years, adding “it’s possible the eventual standard would be higher.”

Currently, California and the United States have maximums for total chromium, which includes chromium 6 as well as other benign chromium variants.

Chromium 6 is one of a number of industrial contaminants in the San Fernando Valley aquifer, a source of drinking water for Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale, the Los Angeles Times said. Those communities cut chromium levels by blending local groundwater with imported supplies.

Bill Mace, an assistant general manager at Burbank Water and Power, which gets up to 50 percent of it supplies from the aquifer called the proposed public health goal “shockingly low,” noting that the utility would have to treat for it.

To read the Chronicle article, click here.

To read the Times article, click here.

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