Chromium 6 levels up since February

Buck Wargo

CITY HALL -- The levels of chromium 6 in water taken from the San

Fernando Basin aquifer in Glendale have nearly doubled since February but

remain well under existing state standards, the city’s water services

administrator said Wednesday.

The release of chromium test results comes as Glendale officials say

they could learn as early as today whether the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency will grant a 90-day delay in the city’s drawing of

contaminated ground water for its drinking supply. Glendale, which has

not used the water in nearly two decades, was scheduled to start drawing

from the San Fernando Valley wells Monday.

Glendale Water & Power tested water at its treatment plant in

September that shows the level of the toxin chromium 6 rose from 5.7

parts in February to 10 parts per billion this month. Levels of total

chromium, however, fell from 23 parts per billion in February to 20 parts

per billion in September, Don Froelich, the city’s water services

administrator said.

Once the ground water is blended with its supply from the Municipal

Water District of Southern California, city officials estimate the

drinking water will have between 2 and 5 parts per billion of chromium 6

at the tap and 7 to 14 parts per billion of total chromium. The water

would still meet the state standard of 50 parts per billion for total

chromium but would not meet the public health goal of 2.5 parts per

billion set in 1999 by the California Office of Environmental Health

Assessment.

Froelich said he does not know why the chromium 6 levels have

increased and that more testing will be done. State health officials have

said chromium levels can easily fluctuate, even due to seasonal rainfall.

Glendale Water & Power and EPA officials will meet in Glendale today

to discuss the City Council request. Council members said they want the

delay until more is known on the health effects of chromium 6, a

byproduct of manufacturing that is a known carcinogen when inhaled but

whose health affects in drinking water in lower levels are debated.

Glendale will not use the water, pending the EPA’s response and a

review over the liability of not accepting the water, which is being

treated from millions of dollars spent by companies who contaminated the

ground water with industrial solvents.

“My view is that the EPA is not going to push Glendale to use the

water now,” San Fernando Basin water master Me Blevins said. “They are

going to be sensitive to their concerns.”

Blevins said he thinks it is wrong for Glendale to reject the water

over a political issue and that he expects the city to eventually accept

it.

The Department of Health Services is studying whether to change the

chromium standard.

Allan Hirsch, a spokesman for the California Office of Environmental

Health Assessment said his agency’s setting of the public health goal is

not intended to frighten the public from drinking the water. Instead, it

is meant to spark a dialogue for taking steps to further reduce the

health risk to as close to zero as possible.

“Within this 2.5 to 50 parts per billion there is kind of a gray

area,” Hirsch said. “It is fair to say the health risk of chromium is

still relatively low. The (Department of Health Services) is not in the

business of allowing the serving of dangerous levels of chromium in

drinking water.”