‘Erin Brockovich’ toxin found in 11 Lehigh Valley water systems

According to the EWG, a 2008 study found that drinking water containing chromium-6 caused cancer in lab rodents.

Including right here in Southeast Wisconsin.

Chromium-6 is the carcinogenic chemical that was featured in the popular 2000 movie “Erin Brockovich”, starring Julia Roberts as the titular activist.

The advocacy group’s determination was based on California’s public health goal of 0.02 parts per billion, an NJ Advance Media article reports – though California’s actual legal standard is 10 parts per billion.

The city of Cleveland ranked 15th in average level of chromium-6 in the largest US water systems, averaging.102 parts per billion.

“But in that time the EPA hasn’t set drinking water standards for any previously unregulated contaminant, and there are disturbing signs the agency may again do nothing about chromium-6”, she added.

However, they say well water is only a small amount of the total water in the system, and their tests show levels are no more than 1.6 parts per billion when the water reaches homes. The city of Phoenix had the highest chromium-6 level at 7.853 parts per billion against the 0.2 standard. Recent science has also shown that, when ingested, it can cause stomach cancer.

Chromium-6 can cause cancer, reproductive problems and liver damage even from little exposure, the report says. A version of that assessment is expected to be released to the public next year.

“Using the standard of less than 0.2 parts per billion, a goal that “[poses] no more than a one-in-a-million risk of cancer for people who drink it daily for 70 years”, the EWG study examined EPA tests from 1,370 US counties.

The group estimated that if nothing changes, chromium-6 in tap water will lead to more than 12,000 excess cases of cancer by the end of the century.

New Jersey’s Drinking Water Quality Institute, a state panel of scientific advisers, considered recommending a chromium 6 health limit of 0.07 ppb in 2010.

The 0.02 PPB “public health goal” is the level below which California’s state scientists believe there is no more than a one-in-a-million risk of a person developing cancer over their lifetime.

Levels in Hinkley spiked to as high as 580 ppb in some groundwater wells and to more than 9,000 ppb right around the compressor station where PG&E once used the chemical compound and then dumped it into unlined waste ponds, according to various media reports.

But California water quality officials, under intense lobbying from industry, adopted a chromium-6 drinking water standard 500 times the level the state’s scientists deemed safe.

“Ensuring safe drinking water for all Americans is a top priority for EPA”.

In 2014, California became the first state to put a cap on chromium-6 in drinking water.

The EPA collected more than 60,000 water samples from local water facilities between 2013 and 2015. They claim the EWG took all the chromium-6 measurements from every water source and averaged them. The agency said in a statement to the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Monday that it is “actively working on the development of the Integrated Risk Information System assessment of hexavalent chromium, which will include a comprehensive evaluation of potential health effects associated with hexavalent chromium and EPA expects that the draft IRIS assessment will be released for public comment in 2017”.

The EPA says that less than 2 percent of the latest national monitoring systems reported hexavalent chromium at levels exceeding California’s enforceable maximum contaminant level of 10ppb.