Hearings to Be Held on Chromium in Water

Hoping to put pressure on state regulators to address possible health dangers from chromium 6 in drinking water, state Sen. Adam Schiff and Deborah Ortiz, head of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, plan to hold hearings on the issue this fall.

Schiff, a Burbank Democrat, said he would call health experts and regulators to discuss the extent of chromium 6 contamination of drinking water and what can be done about it. The hearings will be held in Burbank sometime in October.

“It’s important to have hearings to underscore the need to act swiftly to determine the safety of the drinking water,” Schiff said. “This will allow us to hold [the Department of Health Services’] feet to the fire to make sure that they study the potential adverse effects of chromium with all speed and, if a new standard is necessary, that it’s adopted with all speed.”

Schiff is the second state legislator to call for public hearings on chromium 6, also known as hexavalent chromium. Last week state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) called on state Sen. Byron Sher (D-Stanford), chairman of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, to convene hearings on the ground water contamination issue.

Hayden aides said they had not received a reply to that request.

The call for hearings follows disclosures by The Times that a plan to reduce chromium 6 levels, proposed two years ago, was still being studied by the Department of Health Services. Department officials said action could take five years.

But amid increasing pressure from state lawmakers, the department’s drinking water chief, David Spath, said Wednesday that his agency will use its emergency powers to order local agencies to start testing for chromium 6.

The Assembly and Senate were expected to vote late Thursday on legislation ordering the Department of Health Services to speed the review of potential health effects from chromium 6 in local ground water.

Written by Schiff and Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), SB 2127 calls for the department to determine chromium 6 levels in San Fernando Valley ground water supplies, assess the public risk and report back to the Legislature by Jan. 1, 2002.

Currently, local water agencies are not required to test for chromium 6. Some utilities, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, have been monitoring for the chemical since 1998.

DWP wells have been found to contain levels of chromium 6 ranging from trace amounts to 30 parts per billion, or 12 times the proposed state standard.

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

Chromium 6 has been called a cancer-causing agent in several high-profile lawsuits. In a 1996 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 because the firm’s underground tanks leaked chromium 6 into ground water.

Water officials have maintained that chromium 6 is classified as a carcinogen only when inhaled through the air, not absorbed through water.