Antonovich Decries Levels of Chromium in Well Tests

Tap water tests in recent days at 100 Los Angeles County facilities found what one official called excessive levels of chromium 6, a suspected carcinogen, but officials cautioned Thursday that results are preliminary and additional testing is needed.

The tests, conducted at fire stations, health centers, courthouses and other county-owned buildings, found chromium 6 levels ranging from trace amounts to as high as 7.5 parts per billion in several places, said Wasfy Shindy, director of the county’s environmental toxicology lab.

State officials have proposed tougher standards for chromium as a means of reducing levels of chromium 6, which water agencies are not required to test for under state rules.

The proposed new chromium standard is 2.5 ppb. Although a formal chromium 6 measure has not been established, the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment believes drinking water should not contain more than 0.2 ppb of chromium 6, said Alan Hirsch, an agency spokesman.

The county tests were conducted at 20 sites in each of the five supervisorial districts. They were ordered two weeks ago by the Board of Supervisors after reports in The Times that state officials were still studying tougher chromium standards two years after they were first recommended.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich said the results are worrisome because officials had expected to find minute concentrations of the chemical.

“Preliminary findings indicate excessive levels of chromium 6 in some of the county’s health facilities,” Antonovich said. “Countywide the levels are higher than was anticipated.”

Antonovich and Shindy, however, stressed that the results were preliminary and subject to a follow-up study expected to be completed in the next 10 days.

Chromium 6 was the chemical at the center of a famous toxic case in Hinkley, Calif., that became the basis for the film “Erin Brockovich.” Concentrations there were 24 parts per million, compared to up to 7.5 ppb in the county tests.

Some scientists believe chromium 6 should not be present in water at all, but water officials say there is not enough scientific evidence linking chromium 6 to illness, and that concentrations in local water supplies are safe.

The state’s current standard for total chromium is 50 ppb, and the federal standard is 100 ppb. The proposed new standard of 2.5 ppb is being studied by the state Department of Health Services.

Department of Health Services drinking water chief David Spath declined to comment on the county test results, saying there were many questions that had yet to be answered on the risks of chromium 6 and occurrence through the state.

“We want to go through a process that’s been defined by the law,” Spath said “It doesn’t help anyone to speculate about certain levels of chromium 6 in the water.”

Chromium 6 has been found in water pumped from underground aquifers in the San Fernando Valley. Last month, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power closed two of its Valley wells, citing high concentrations of chromium.

Officials with the DWP and other water utilities, however, have said that tougher standards would raise water rates by forcing them to close wells and import more water.

The economic impact of a tougher standard must be evaluated under the state’s 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act, the law responsible for triggering the state’s review of chromium 6 in water.

But Antonovich said he was frustrated with that point of view.

“I have a sense of concern and frustration that the water districts are not placing this issue on the front burner,” Antonovich said.