Dispute Hampers Cleanup of Wells

Two years after the state called for slashing levels of a suspected cancer-causing agent in drinking water, authorities have yet to implement the proposal, even though local officials fear chromium 6 is turning up in greater quantities in wells, particularly in the San Fernando Valley.

Regional water officials said other Southern California manufacturing centers, such as the San Gabriel Valley and the South Bay, have pockets of contamination. But they said the problems there are not as bad as in the San Fernando Valley because of such factors as the nature of the manufacturing and the ground hydrology.

Chromium 6 is an odorless chemical that is at the center of several lawsuits on toxic contamination, including one made famous in the film “Erin Brockovich.” The chemical has been detected in two dozen Valley ground water wells, officials said.

It has also been found at 30 of 80 Valley-area federal ground water monitoring sites in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tests.

Even so, it could take five more years before the state moves to adopt tougher standards for chromium 6, said David Spath, drinking water chief for the state Department of Health Services.

Part of the reason for the delay, according to Spath and others, is that the health risk of chromium 6 in water is still being debated and studied, as are the costs and benefits of stricter standards.

“Chromium 6 is a carcinogen in numerous animal species and humans--and is not supposed to be present in water at all,” said James Dahlgren, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at UCLA. “It’s very unfortunate, but I think the only justification of not lowering the standard seems to be economics: It’s a pure cost-benefit calculation. That’s what’s holding this up.”

Local water utility officials, however, say the risks of chromium 6 in water have not been proved.

“For many, many years, people have been drinking the water,” said Mel Blevins, water master for the upper Los Angeles River area, a court-appointed position that oversees ground water pumping rights in the San Fernando Valley. “I don’t see a lot of people sick.”

State officials have spent the last two years developing a test for chromium 6 and sampling wells around the state to determine the extent of the problem because the chemical is not one that’s routinely analyzed, Spath said.

An analysis of those samples is expected to be completed within weeks, he said. The state must then complete a series of rigorous steps before it can mandate new chromium 6 standards for local water utilities, he said.

Those steps include reviews of the health threat posed by chromium 6, also known as hexavalent chromium, and whether a new standard would increase costs to local water agencies.

“It’s obvious that hexavalent chromium is on the radar screen,” Spath said. “But there’s a paucity of data about it.”

Chromium 6 Can Kill Over Time

Today’s chromium 6 problem can be traced to the Valley’s legacy as an aerospace and industrial center. Employed to harden steel and make paint pigments, among other things, chromium has been used by everything from airplane makers to electroplating shops.

Chromium is a benign element found in nature. But when used in some manufacturing processes, it can transform into toxic chromium 6.

In manufacturing areas, chromium 6 can get into soil and ground water by intentional discharges or accident.

Water agencies monitor chromium, but are not required to test for chromium 6. However, high levels of chromium can indicate the presence of chromium 6.

Currently, the state allows a maximum of 50 parts total chromium per billion parts of drinking water. That standard assumes that chromium 6 makes up 7.2% of any chromium sample--a percentage some officials say is far too low.

In 1998, the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment issued a draft recommendation to cut the allowable levels of chromium to 2.5 parts per billion. The recommendation, which was made formal in 1999, was based on studies suggesting that chromium 6 could cause cancer when ingested with water, said Dr. David Morry, a state toxicologist and the proposal’s main author.

Max Costa, who heads the department of environmental medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, said chromium 6 is not an immediate threat to life, but kills over time, causing cancer decades later.

“In an ideal world, there should not be any amount of chromium 6 in drinking water,” he said. “The state should set the standard as low as possible, and they shouldn’t wait to change it.”

Changing the standard would be costly, water officials contend.

“I think it would be devastating to water agencies throughout the state and consumers as a result of the rate increases,” said Harold Tighe, a public works manager for the city of San Fernando. “People feel they are paying enough for water now.”

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the cities of Burbank and San Fernando all pump ground water from Valley wells, which helps reduce reliance on costly imported water.

San Fernando Valley wells used by the DWP range from trace amounts of chromium to 30 parts per billion, or more than 12 times the proposed state standard, said Dixon Oriola, a senior engineer with the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Valley-area water officials insist that tap water is already safe because California chromium standards are more than twice as strict as the federal government’s. And they say a health standard of 2.5 parts per billion for chromium would create an economic nightmare. They contend that the potential repercussions include:

* Closing dozens of local wells in northern Los Angeles, Burbank and the city of San Fernando.

* Forcing DWP customers to swallow $47 million annually in added costs for imported water from the Metropolitan Water District, or about $5 a month for the typical customer.

Burbank would be hit especially hard, since it relies on ground water for 63% of its supply. Burbank officials say cutting the chromium standard to 2.5 parts per billion would force them to spend $3 million a year--twice the current outlay--for imported water.

“A 2.5 standard would be a crippling blow to all ground water pumping activities in the Valley,” Blevins said..

Spath said the economic impact will be a key issue as the state decides whether to adopt a tougher chromium standard or an entirely new standard for chromium 6.

Currently, the 2.5 parts-per-billion benchmark is a “public health goal” adopted by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. To become a legal standard, that goal must be adopted by the state health department.

Chromium Levels Increasing in Valley

Meanwhile, there are signs that chromium 6 concentrations are increasing.

Gary Yamamoto, chief of technical programs for the state health department, said recent tests show that chromium levels--which are presumed to include chromium 6--have increased in the Valley.

“Two local wells in Glendale and Burbank currently exceed allowable levels for total chromium, where two years ago no Valley wells were above the state standard,” Yamamoto said. “The problem is, in a year or two, evidence shows more of those wells will exceed the drinking water standard.”

A well near the old Lockheed factory in Burbank, for example, went from 15 parts per billion in 1995 to 110 parts per billion in 1999, he said. It fell back to 25 parts per billion in samples taken earlier this year, Yamamoto said.

Water officials point out that the U.S. government and California currently classify chromium 6 as a carcinogen when inhaled, but not when ingested in water.

In his report recommending a new public health goal, Morry relied heavily on a 1968 German experiment that found that 2 of 66 mice given chromium 6-tainted water developed malignant stomach cancer. Nine other mice developed benign tumors.

Morry said his recommendation is based on the assumption that 7.2% of total chromium is chromium 6. But samples taken by state and local officials have found sharply higher concentrations of chromium 6--in some cases more than 50%.

While some officials complain about thin science, Morry defends his position. “This health goal has at least caused people to go out and test for chromium 6 when they hadn’t done it before,” he said.

Chromium 6 has been blamed as a cancer-causing agent in several high-profile lawsuits. In the case on which the film “Erin Brockovich” is based, residents of the San Bernardino County town of Hinkley won a $333-million settlement with Pacific Gas and Electric when the town’s underground tanks leaked chromium 6 into ground water supplies.

A final decision on adopting a new chromium standard will be made by the state health department. The agency’s director, Diana Bonta, declined to be interviewed, but in a statement defended the time it will take to complete the review.

“These issues are extremely complex and there are no easy fixes,” she said. “I am anticipating analysis and recommendations from department scientists on the best actions to protect public health.”

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Blankstein is a Times staff writer; Jacobs is a freelance writer.