Lawmakers Move to Speed Chromium 6 Testing

Moving to address growing public concern about dangers from a suspected carcinogen in drinking water, the state Legislature has approved a bill prodding regulators to speed up testing for chromium 6 in San Fernando Valley ground water supplies.

The bill--approved late Thursday and written by state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks)--calls for the Department of Health Services to determine chromium 6 levels in drinking water supplied by San Fernando Valley aquifers, assess the risk to the public and report its findings to the Legislature by Jan. 1, 2002.

SB 2127, approved 51 to 29 in the Assembly, went on to pass the state Senate by a 23-11 margin, just nine minutes before close of the legislative session midnight Thursday. Gov. Gray Davis has until Sept. 30 to sign the measure but has not said whether he will, according to aides.

Legislative action comes on the heels of a Times story that found a 2-year-old proposal for reducing chromium 6 levels was still being studied by the Department of Health Services, and that any action could be delayed another five years to complete surveys, health studies and a cost-benefit analysis.

The state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment had proposed health services reduce allowable levels of chromium in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 2.5 ppb. Delay in acting on the request prompted the action by lawmakers.

Public officials have also called for a more complete accounting of the chromium 6 problem in water wells that supply the cities of Los Angeles, Burbank and San Fernando.

Schiff said he plans to join Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento), the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, to hear from health experts and state regulators on the extent of chromium 6 contamination and possible solutions. The hearing will be held next month in Burbank.

“We now need to go about this process swiftly but thoughtfully,” Schiff said. “But also with an eye toward informing the people on the chromium 6 issue, not alarming them.”

Separately, state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) said last week he planned to focus on the cancer risk from the chemical.

“What needs to be investigated is the level of the toxic threat in the water supply, how it was caused and whether government agencies were looking the other way,” Hayden said. “We also need to find out what remedies are required to fix it.”

On Friday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said he would urge the Board of Supervisors at its meeting Tuesday to order immediate countywide testing for chromium and chromium 6 in drinking water.

“The state has proposed beginning testing our water in six months and continuing over a five-year period,” Antonovich said in a statement Friday. “This delay is unacceptable and could result in serious consequences. Testing by the county can begin immediately.”

Diana Bonta, health services director, was unavailable for comment, spokeswoman Lea Brooks said. The agency announced earlier this week it will order local drinking water agencies to start testing for chromium 6.

David Spath, health services drinking water chief, said chromium 6 was not something routinely analyzed in the past, and that time is needed for everything from testing the method, capability and conducting the sampling and analysis.

“We are already moving forward with the monitoring regulations,” Brooks said. “And we will complywith whatever legislation is passed.”

Water agencies are not required to test for chromium 6, and instead monitor for total chromium. But heightened levels of chromium can indicate the presence of its dangerous hybrid, chromium 6.

The chemical also has been detected in 30 of 80 Valley-area federal ground water monitoring sites, including wells used by the cities of Los Angeles, Burbank and San Fernando, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tests.

Wells pumped by the Department of Water and Power have been found to contain levels ranging from trace amounts to 30 ppb, or 12 times the proposed state standard.

As with other supplies, water pumped from Valley water wells is blended with imported water and sent to customers across the city, according to city officials.

Water pumped from Valley water wells by the DWP is blended with other water and sent to customers citywide, according to DWP officials. The state now allows a maximum of 50 parts chromium per billion parts of drinking water. That standard assumes chromium 6 makes up about 7.2% of any chromium sample--a percentage that some officials say is far too low.

But the proposed tougher standard has also drawn criticism from water officials such as Mel Blevins, a court-appointed water master overseeing ground water pumping rights in the Valley. Blevins says there isn’t enough evidence that chromium 6 is a health threat.

Blevins said California tap water is already safe because the state’s chromium standards are more than twice as strict as the federal government’s.

The effect of a 2.5 ppb standard for chromium or chromium 6 would be costly and be very likely to cause the closure of dozens of wells in the cities of Burbank and San Fernando, and in northern Los Angeles.

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