State Plans to Require Tests for Chromium 6 in Water

The state Department of Health Services said Wednesday that it plans to require public water utilities to begin testing for chromium 6, even as state legislators moved to force the agency to accelerate its review of the health threat from the chemical.

Chromium 6, a suspected carcinogen, has been detected in two dozen San Fernando Valley wells, including ones operated by the cities of Los Angeles, Burbank and Glendale.

David Spath, the state health department’s top official in charge of drinking water, said this week that the agency would use its emergency powers to order testing for chromium 6 within months.

The action by state health officials and legislators follows disclosures in The Times that a 2-year-old proposal to reduce levels of chromium 6 was still being studied and could take five more years to implement.

State health officials had said the time was needed to complete surveys, health studies and a cost-benefit analysis.

But Spath said Wednesday that state priorities have shifted.

Preliminary surveys of 30 drinking water systems across the state found higher concentrations of chromium than expected. High levels of chromium, a benign element, can indicate high levels of chromium 6.

“Given the interest and concern over chromium 6, the department feels it’s prudent to move forward expeditiously with this regulation,” Spath said.

Also Wednesday, bills were moving through both houses of the Legislature calling for the health department to more quickly complete studies examining the health impacts of chromium 6.

Under current rules, local water agencies are not required to test supplies for chromium 6, although some utilities, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, have been checking for the chemical since 1998.

State Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) this week introduced SB 2127, which calls for the state health department to measure the level of chromium 6 in drinking water from San Fernando Valley aquifers and assess the public risk by Jan. 1, 2002.

“Right now, the Department of Health Services is under no mandate to study chromium 6, because there is not legislative indication that this is a priority,” Schiff said. “If we can get this signed by the governor, we are telling [the department] we think this is a priority.”

With the legislative session scheduled to end by midnight tonight, prospects for the bill are uncertain.

Last week, Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) called for reducing levels of chromium 6 in public drinking water supplies. He also asked state health department Director Diana M. Bonta to accelerate review and implementation of a tougher standard. Hayden supports the Schiff bill and said he is concerned that the state has not aggressively addressed the dangers of carcinogens in drinking water.

“I plan to mobilize citizens and health experts to guarantee [the health department] takes a precautionary approach based on an attitude of ‘better safe than sorry,’ ” Hayden said.

Chromium 6 has been called a cancer-causing agent in several high-profile lawsuits. In a case made famous by the film “Erin Brockovich,” residents of the San Bernardino County town of Hinkley won a $333-million settlement from Pacific Gas & Electric when the company’s underground tanks leaked chromium 6 into the ground water.

Two years ago, the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment proposed reducing allowable levels of chromium in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 2.5 ppb. The office said the goal is to cut the amount of chromium 6, also known as hexavalent chromium, based on the assumption that it constitutes a portion of each chromium sample.

Local water regulators have said the presence of chromium in local water wells varies from trace amounts to concentrations as high as 110 ppb, which were found in Burbank. Wells pumped by the DWP have been found to contain levels ranging from trace amounts to 30 ppb, or 12 times the proposed state standard.

Toxicologists say chromium 6 is a carcinogen that should not be present in water. But water officials have maintained that it is classified as a carcinogen when inhaled but not when drunk.

Water officials say tap water is already safe because California chromium standards are more than twice as strict as required by the federal government. They say the new standard would cause the closure of dozens of wells in northern Los Angeles, Burbank and San Fernando.