More than five years after a state deadline, California officials released an initial public health goal Thursday for how much of the carcinogenic chemical chromium 6 can exist in drinking water without significant health risk.
A public health goal is a step toward setting a drinking water standard. The next step includes a period of public comment.
"This draft public health goal document is the first in the nation that identifies a health-protective level of chromium 6 in drinking water," said Joan Denton, director of the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, in a news release.
Chromium 6 is a heavy industrial metal also known as hexavalent chromium, or more popularly as the "Erin Brockovich chemical."
Brockovich was a legal aide featured in a Hollywood movie who exposed how drinking water in the southern California city of Hinkley had been tainted with chromium 6.
Well testing has found chromium 6 to be pervasive in California, with high levels in some wells – not necessarily active drinking wells – in many major cities. The city of Davis and UC Davis also have found high levels in wells.
The draft public health goal for chromium 6 is 0.06 parts per billion. A public health goal is reached after rigorous study, which in this case found that the substance caused tumors in mice ingesting it in water.
The draft goal is based on an estimate that for every 1 million people who drink two liters of water with that level daily for 70 years, one person would be expected to develop cancer.
Drinking water containing levels exceeding a public health goal can still be considered acceptable for public consumption, according to the news release.
California currently has a drinking water standard for what's called total chromium. But after the Hinkley problem was exposed, the Legislature ordered that a standard also be set for chromium 6 by January 2004.
A drinking water standard does not have to be as strict as a public health goal, but by law it is supposed to be as close as feasible. Chromium 6 can be removed through treatment.
Call Susan Ferriss, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1267.
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