Water Tests Find High Chromium 6 Levels

Tests of tap water at 110 Los Angeles County government facilities showed levels of chromium 6 at up to 8 parts per billion--more than 40 times the suggested limit, according to a study to be released today.

The tests recorded the highest level at the Burbank Health Center, said a county official who saw the report.

Other high readings were found at the county library in Hacienda Heights, a day-care center in Palmdale and another county library in Rosemead, the official said.

Although there are no formal standards for chromium 6, drinking water should not exceed 0.2 parts per billion, according to the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which first proposed steps to cut chromium 6 levels two years ago.

But substantial uncertainty exists over what the limit should be. And one high-ranking state health official said late Wednesday that people shouldn’t be concerned about the findings of the county study.

“The people who are drinking the water that was tested should not be alarmed with these results,” said Kevin Rielly, acting deputy for prevention programs for the Department of Health Services.

“I have not seen the report,” he added. “We are conducting tests around the state to try to determine what the chromium 6 levels are in state drinking water supplies.”

Chromium 6 was the chemical at the center of a famous toxic case in Hinkley, Calif., that was the basis for the film “Erin Brockovich.”

Concentrations in that case were 24 parts per million, 3,000 times higher than the highest levels uncovered by Los Angeles County testing over the last few weeks.

Chromium 6, a byproduct of metal-plating and other industrial activities, is classified as a carcinogen when inhaled as particles or fumes.

Some scientists argue that chromium 6 should not be present in water at all, while water officials insist the water is safe because of insufficient scientific evidence linking chromium 6 in water to illnesses.

County officials tested tap water at more than 20 sites in each of the five supervisorial districts, including readings from health clinics, courthouses and fire stations. On Wednesday, it was unknown how many of the 110 sites tested above the proposed 2.5-ppb standard for chromium 6 and how many tested below it.

The tests found the chemical was present at levels of up to 7.84 parts per billion at Burbank Health Center, 1101 W. Magnolia St.

In addition to Burbank, an official who saw the report said chromium 6 levels between 4.99 and 7.65 parts per billion were found at Hacienda Heights Library, 16010 La Monde St.; Palmdale Primary Care Center, 1529 E. Palmdale Blvd; Rosemead Library, 8800 Valley Blvd; La Puente Health Center, 15930 Central Ave; and Alhambra Health Center, 1612 W. Shorb St.

County officials would not publicly comment on the report, citing a planned news conference on the issue.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who proposed the county tests following stories on chromium 6 in The Times, also declined comment Wednesday.

But one official who saw the report said it noted that the high levels could have been a result of chemical treatment of the water with chlorine, which can elevate levels of chromium 6 (also known as hexavalent chromium).

The issue is complicated because the state doesn’t have a current standard for chromium 6, but instead limits levels of total chromium as an indirect means of cutting chromium 6.

The state’s current standard for total chromium is 50 parts per billion, and the federal standard is 100 parts per billion.

The proposed new “public health goal” of 2.5 parts per billion is being studied by the state Department of Health Services.

While the county tap water that was tested falls within current allowable limits for chromium, critics say those standards are still too lax because some studies suggest that chromium 6 can cause cancer.

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In the absence of a formal chromium 6 standard, the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment identified a safe drinking water level of 0.2 parts per billion of chromium 6, said Alan Hirsch, an agency spokesman.

At that level, Hirsch said, an estimated 1 million people could drink about two liters of water a day over 70 years--and only one of them would get cancer resulting from exposure to chromium 6.

Chromium 6 concentrations above 0.2 parts per billion fall “into a gray area,” Hirsch said, but he declined to flatly characterize that higher level as unsafe.

Corine Li, regional office chief of drinking water for the Environmental Protection Agency, had no comment on the county report.

But she said the agency was following the chromium testing being conducted in Los Angeles County.

“We continue to support the total chromium standard of 100 parts per billion for safe water,” Li said. “We believe additional collection of chromium 6 occurrence data would be useful to evaluate health effects from ingestion of the chemical,” Li said.

State health officials also would not comment on findings of the report, saying it was up to the Department of Health Services to examine or discuss any of the county findings, Hirsch said.

The Times reported Aug. 20 that the state Department of Health Services was still reviewing the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment’s recommendation to toughen chromium standards, more than two years after it was proposed.

In response, legislation was signed last week by Gov. Gray Davis. SB 2127 gives the state Department of Health Services until January 2002 to assess the threat of chromium 6 statewide and report to the governor and Legislature.

It also directs the agency to study the amount of chromium 6 in the San Fernando Valley aquifer, a major source of well water for Los Angeles and other cities that has been polluted for decades by industrial contamination.

Tests on Los Angeles Department of Water and Power water wells in the Valley found levels of chromium 6 as high as 4.65 parts per billion, said Pankaj Parekh, the DWP’s manager of regulatory compliance.

But Parekh and others say that water is blended among various sources, and chromium 6 levels in tap water are well below that found in the wells.