In 1993, Erin Brockovich brought a lawsuit against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) of California, for alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium, also known as “chromium VI”, “Cr-VI” or “Cr-6” in the southern California town of Hinkley. The case was settled in 1996 for US$333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in US history.
This week, Chromium-6 is once again in the news as the results of an Environmental Protection Agency program that was run between 2013 and 2015, wherein local water utilities took more than 60,000 water samples.
A 2010 EWG investigation found elevated levels of chromium-6 in the tap water of 31 out of 35 cities sampled. The analysis estimated that water supplies servicing approximately 218 million Americans contain potentially unsafe levels of the chemical. This investigation prompted the EPA investigation which found chromium-6 in more than 75% of samples.
Tests found that Phoenix has the highest level of the contamination, followed by St. Louis County, Houston, Los Angeles and Suffolk County, N.Y. While these counties have the highest concentrations of Cr-6, the tests also found that every U.S. water system serving in excess of 1 million people has harmful chromium-6 concentrations.
According to government scientists, even very low levels of CR6 in the drinking water can cause cancer, but the chemical industry challenges the methods used by the EPA to calculate cancer risk, and this is what is stalling federal regulations.
Erin Brockovich, now a consumer advocate, stated:
“Houston, we have a problem. More than 20 years ago, we learned that this dangerous chemical poisoned the tap water of California communities, and now these tests and EWG’s report show that roughly 218 million Americans are being served drinking water polluted with potentially dangerous levels of this known carcinogen.
“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,†added Brockovich. “This is an abject failure by the EPA, including members of Congress charged with overseeing the agency, and every American should be outraged by this inaction.â€
