PRIYA SHARMA The recent discovery of high levels of the
suspected carcinogen chromium 6 in Los Angeles area drinking water
prompted legislation to report the levels.
By Kevin Lee
Daily Bruin Contributor
Chromium 6 ““ the contaminant brought into the public eye
by the movie “Erin Brockovich” ““Â has been
detected by San Fernando water officials at levels as high as 40
times above the standard limit
But according to David Kimbrough of the Castaic Lake Water
Agency, there is no compelling evidence that chromium 6 ingested
through the water is harmful to the body.
“The stomach and liver can easily convert chromium 6 into
its harmless cousin, chromium 3,” Kimbrough said.
“Furthermore, two types of chromium 6 are known to exist and
only one of them is known to be cancerous.”
Chromium, by itself, is an element found in nature which is used
in many industrial activities such as hardening steel and producing
paint pigments. But through chemical reactions, the element can be
transformed into chromium 6, a dangerous toxin when released into
the air or soil.
Most of the chromium 6 found in the San Fernando Valley water is
produced through geothermal processes such as volcanic activity,
according to Kimbrough. An exception is the heavy aerospace
industry in such cities as Glendale, where chromium 6 is a common
by-product of metal plating and paint production.
Lockheed Martin, an aerospace company, has already paid $60
million to settle claims by San Fernando Valley residents for
releasing chromium 6 into the water. But the company denies any
liability for posing a health risk to the public, saying that toxin
concentrations were too small to make people sick.
Professor John Froines of the UCLA School of Public Health urged
immediate action to deal with the chromium 6 situation in a state
senate hearing Oct. 24 in Burbank City Hall.
A colleague of Kimbrough’s, Froines agreed there exists no
strong evidence pointing to the potency of chromium 6 in water, but
based on other circumstantial evidence, Froines said he would still
be wary of the chemical.
Froines stressed that it was better to take action now than to
wait for the California Department of Health to start instituting
changes, which may not be for another five years.
State Senator Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, also called on the
California Department of Health to issue an “action
level” which would urge all local water agencies to meet a
chromium standard as quickly as possible. The California Senate
will not reconvene until January.
In support of Froines’ decision, Professor Thomas Harmon
of the UCLA School of Civil and Environmental Engineering said the
San Fernando County’s best option is the go ahead with water
treatment.
“I tend to be conservative when it comes to dealing with
things that directly affect the public’s health,”
Harmon said. “Chromium 6 is widely considered to be a
“˜bad’ element, and I say, if in doubt, clean up the
water anyway.”
The cities most affected by the chromium 6 contamination are,
from most severe to least: Burbank, Glendale, North Hollywood and
Sun Valley.
Chromium 6 concentrations based on tests done in the
cities’ water wells were as high as eight parts per billion,
compared to the proposed standard of 0.2 ppb.
Ryan Tashma, a UCLA student whose home lies in North Hollywood,
said he recalls talks in the past about his area’s water
safety.
“My family always drank either filtered or bottled water
just to be safe,” Tashma said.
Governor Gray Davis has signed a bill, SB 2127, that requires
the California Department of Health to report the levels of
chromium 6 detected in the San Fernando Valley aquifer, as well as
the risk it poses to the public, before the California Legislature
by Jan. 1, 2002.
An aquifer is a section of porous underground rock into which
city water wells are sunk to extract the water.
Los Angeles first began showing signs of chromium 6
contamination between 1945 and the mid-1960s when it appeared in
large amounts in the city waste water during the Cold War in
concentrations as high as 80,000 parts per billion, based on Los
Angeles city water records.
Water officials have drawn up a list of 4,000 companies in San
Fernando Valley considered to be potential chromium 6 polluters
based on records compiled two decades ago by a different industrial
investigation.
Associated with the San Fernando water hearings is Erin
Brockovich, a legal investigator who was made famous by the movie
“Erin Brockovich.”
The film documents her involvement in a $333 million lawsuit
against Pacific Gas & Electric, which found the utility
responsible for leaking large amounts of chromium 6 into the ground
water of Hinkley in the San Bernardino Valley.
At the time, chromium 6 concentrations in Hinkley were as high
as 1000 ppb, much higher than the levels detected now in the San
Fernando Valley.