Bill Passed to Speed Testing for Chromium 6 in Ground Water

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

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

The bill passed the Assembly and Senate shortly before the close of the legislative session early Friday. Gov. Gray Davis has until Sept. 30 to sign the measure but has not indicated whether he will, aides said.

The legislative action comes after a story in The Times found that a 2-year-old proposal for reducing chromium 6 levels was still being studied by the health department and could be delayed another five years. The state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment had proposed that the department lower the level of chromium allowed in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 2.5 ppb.

News of the delay prompted the action by state lawmakers this week.

Public officials have 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 and state Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento), the newly appointed chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, will hear from health experts and state regulators about chromium 6 contamination. 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 that 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 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.”

Water agencies aren’t required to test for chromium 6, and instead monitor for total chromium. Heightened levels of chromium can indicate the presence of its dangerous hybrid, chromium 6.

Chromium 6 has been detected in 30 of 80 federal ground-water monitoring sites in the Valley, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tests, including wells used by Los Angeles, Burbank and San Fernando.

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

Water pumped from San Fernando Valley wells by the DWP is blended with other water and sent to customers across the city, according to DWP officials.

The state currently allows a maximum of 50 parts of chromium per billion parts of drinking water. That standard assumes that chromium 6 makes up about 7.2% of any chromium sample--a percentage some officials say is far too low.

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

Besides, Blevins said, the state’s chromium standards are more than twice as strict as federal standards.

The effect of a standard of 2.5 ppb for chromium or chromium 6 would be costly, water officials say, causing the closure of dozens of wells in northern Los Angeles, Burbank and the city of San Fernando.