Glendale, San Fernando to Test Water

Amid worries about chromium 6 contamination in tap water, the Glendale and San Fernando city councils agreed separately Tuesday to hire consultants to test their water supplies.

Glendale Mayor Dave Weaver said his city was being “proactive” because the state currently has no standard for chromium 6, a suspected carcinogen.

“We are taking this action until we are comfortable with the quality of water we are receiving from the treatment plant,” Weaver said in a statement.

The cities of Burbank and Los Angeles, which pump ground water from the same basin, have asked Glendale officials to share the consultant’s work, Weaver said.

On Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency denied Glendale’s request to delay accepting treated ground water for consumer use. The city had sought the delay while it considered the potential health risks associated with chromium 6 in the water.

EPA officials, however, say the treated water meets all state and federal drinking-water standards.

In a separate action Tuesday, the San Fernando City Council discussed closing four of its ground-water wells, which supply the city’s 24,800 residents.

After discussion, however, the council decided instead to hire a consultant to test its wells, saying there was not enough evidence to justify closing the wells now.

A random tap water survey by Los Angeles County found chromium 6 levels of between 5 parts per billion and 5.44 ppb at two Superior Court buildings in San Fernando.

Although the state has no standard for chromium 6, it does limit total chromium concentrations at up to 50 parts per billion. A state agency has proposed toughening the chromium standard to 2.5 parts per billion, which is intended to reduce chromium 6 levels to 0.2 ppb.

The measurements at the San Fernando courthouses on 3rd and 1st streets were in the top 10 among 110 government facilities that were tested by the county’s environmental toxicology bureau.

The actions by the two cities follow a Times report Aug. 20 that a 1998 recommendation for tougher chromium standards was still being studied by Department of Health Services officials, and that adopting the standard may take another five years.