Chromium-6 is on tap in drinking water across America

by Aimee Keenan-Greene 
 
Its known as the 'Erin Brockovich chemical'. The cancer causing chromium-6.
 
New tests commissioned by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) have now detected the carcinogenic hexavalent chromium-6  in 31 out of 35 tap water samples collected in cities across the country. 
 
That's 89 percent of faucet water they put to the test.  74 million Americans in 42 states drink some kind of chromium polluted tap water, according to the EWG.
 
It has the environmental advocates asking, are drinking water standards drastically out of date?
 
Chromium-6 has been linked to stomach and gastrointestinal cancers, according to the EWG.
 
Chromium has multiple forms. The two most common have vastly different effects on human health. Trivalent chromium (chromium-3) is a nutrient essential to sugar and lipid metabolism, but hexavalent chromium-6 is a dangerous toxin the EWG reports.
 
The EWG says chromium-6 gets into drinking water when it is discharged from steel and pulp mills, metal-plating and leather-tanning facilities. It is most commonly a component in making stainless steel and super-alloys. Welding and the production of dyes, pigments and alloys also use chromium . It is often used to plate metal surfaces and is a major component of pesticides used in pressure-treated lumber for outdoor decks, play sets and other structures. Chromium was also widely used as an anti-corrosive agent in industrial cooling towers until it was banned 20 years ago. It can pollute water through erosion of soil and rock.
 
Fetuses, infants and children have higher sensitivity to carcinogenic chemicals. The EWG says according to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), children’s developing organ systems are more vulnerable to damage from chemical exposures, and children are less able than adults to detoxify and excrete chemicals. 
 
For total chromium, the US Environmental Protection Agency has set a legal limit of 100 ppb in tap water to protect against skin irritation. California’s legal limit for total chromium is half that, 50 ppb.
 
The California EPA has proposed a 'public health goal' of 0.06 parts per billion (ppb) as a standard for maximum concentration of chromium-6 in tap water to reduce cancer risk. 
 
Nationally, samples from 25 cities tested by EWG had levels of hexavalent chromium-6 higher than the safe limit proposed in California. 
 
California is the only state that requires water utilities to test for hexavalent chromium-6.  
 
For this new round of testing, the EWG went to variety of cities where testing by local water utilities had previously detected potentially significant amounts of total chromium.
 
Total chromium is a less specific measurement that includes trivalent chromium, an essential mineral that regulates glucose metabolism, as well the cancer-causing hexavalent chromium-6.
 
Chromium-6 levels in tap water in all four California cities tested by EWG exceeded the proposed public health goal. 
 
EWG’s analysis of California’s tap water testing data indicates that chromium-6 constitutes more than half of the total chromium found in most water supplies. 
 
The national EPA’s 100 ppb legal limit for total chromium is more than 1,600 times higher than the California’s proposed public health goal for hexavalent chromium. 
 
Since 1996, the EPA has reviewed data on toxicity and water pollution for 138 chemicals, but in every case it declined to set a safety standard, according to the EWG. The group goes on to say analysis of its tap water quality database showed that collectively these chemicals pollute the drinking water of more than 111 million Americans.
 
For the 114 contaminants the EPA does regulate, EWG’s drinking water quality analysis found  water suppliers achieved 92 percent compliance with mandatory health standards
 
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says protecting America’s drinking water would be one of seven agency priorities:

• Taking action on climate change
• Improving air quality
• Assuring the safety of chemicals
• Cleaning up communities
• Protecting America's waters
• Expanding the conversation on environmentalism and working for environmental justice
• Building strong state and tribal partnerships

 
The EPA has announced plans to set a legal limit for perchlorate in tap water, making it the first new chemical to be regulated in drinking water in ten years. 
 
Thursday the EPA released its annual national analysis of the Toxics Release Inventory(TRI). The TRI tracks toxic chemical disposed of and released into the air, land and water, as well as information on waste management and pollution prevention activities across the country. 
 
In 2009, 3.37 billion pounds of toxic chemicals were released into the environment, a 12 percent decrease from 2008. The EPA noted a specific decreases in toxins released in the midwestern states.
 
Today the EPA also proposed updates to make Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program information more publically available.