Since 1977, chromium-6 has only been regulated within a broader MCL for total chromium - which includes both the toxic chromium-6 and the beneficial chromium-3, an important nutrient for human health. The board’s proposal on Monday confirmed that the MCL must avoid “any significant risk to public health” - which for chromium-6 includes “cancer and kidney toxicity” - and stay as close to the public health goal as “technologically and economically feasible.” With the proposed MCL, one out of 2,000 individuals exposed to drinking water at 10 parts per billion for 70 years could develop cancer, according to the report.īut the Water Board nonetheless characterized the proposal as “a major milestone” in a news release accompanying the report. “I thought that when we set this, it was to be protective of public health and welfare.” “You set an MCL, you set it far enough away from a public health goal - what was your purpose?” Brockovich asked. Such a level, the agency stated at the time, is accepted by physicians and scientists as a “negligible risk” standard. The public health goal, set in 2011 by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, indicated that chromium-6 levels should be below 0.02 parts per billion - an exposure level that represents a “one in one million” lifetime cancer risk level. The California Water Board acknowledged this discrepancy in its own proposal on Monday, explaining that the cancer risk associated with a 10 parts per billion threshold “is 500 times greater” than the level set in state targets. “California is making an effort to create an MCL for hexavalent chromium in drinking water, where no other states are willing to do that, let alone the federal government,” Brockovich said, noting, however, that the MCL is nowhere near the state’s own public health goal. Ultimately, PG&E settled with residents for $333 million, but the state of California has yet to regulate the chemical’s presence in drinking water. While working in Hinkley as a legal aid for Ed Masry, she came across medical records that led her to discover the contamination, which was coming from a Pacific Gas and Electric Company natural gas compressor in the community. Hexavalent chromium - known more commonly as chromium-6 or “the Erin Brockovich chemical” - gained international notoriety in the 1990s, after Brockovich discovered that it was contaminating drinking water and making people sick in the San Bernardino County town of Hinkley, Calif. The MCL is expected to take effect in 2024, if adopted by the board following an extended public comment period. The proposal, issued by the board on Monday, would set a maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 micrograms - or 10 parts per billion - of hexavalent chromium per liter of drinking water. From the moment I began this 30 years ago, it was dodge, hide, conceal and never about the health and welfare of people, of animals, livestock or the land - but of your coveted money and making sure somebody didn’t get sued.” “I’m frustrated that nothing’s changed in 30 years.” Brockovich told The Hill. Three decades after Erin Brockovich discovered that hexavalent chromium was sickening residents of a small Mojave Desert community, California’s State Water Board has proposed a long-awaited regulatory standard that would limit the toxin’s presence in drinking water.īut according to Brockovich, the proposed regulation is insufficient - and amounts to no more than “lip service” and “politics.”
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