Another MCL Flip-Flop For Chromium 6
Another MCL Flip-Flop For Chromium 6
California Sets New Standards For This Long-Established Toxic Chemical.
Everything for me started in Hinkley, California, a tiny Southern California community located in the Mojave Desert. I was 31 years old, a single mom with three little kids. I’m now in my 60s and have four grandchildren!
In 1991, I was working as a legal clerk and discovered that a carcinogen called hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium-6, had contaminated the water in the town—leading to a years-long environmental investigation and lawsuit. I started my work with the idea that one person can make a difference, and as I went along, I decided that person could be me.
Hinkley was one small town with a giant electric company (PG&E) that thought they could pollute the water and get away with it. Today, Hinkley is everywhere, which is why it’s so important that California has once again lead the way by setting an MCL for this toxic compound.
California regulators voted last week to establish a drinking water limit on hexavalent chromium, one they were forced to drop in 2017. We’ll get into that story in a minute.
This substance is often referred to as the “Erin Brockovich chemical,” but I assure you it was here long before me. I may have helped expose its dangers, but the real story is how this chemical came to be in every town across the country and how it has polluted our drinking water.
A 2016 analysis of federal data from drinking water tests throughout the country shows that hexavalent chromium contaminates water supplies for more than 200 million Americans in all 50 states.
Federal regulations only monitor general chromium in water, which includes the two most common forms: chromium-3, a naturally occurring metallic element, and chromium-6, the toxic version used by industry to make everything from motor vehicle bumpers to textile dyes, wood preservation and anticorrosion products, and more. We don’t differentiate between the two at the federal level, and that’s a big problem.
The fact that California has set a new MCL is a really big deal. The state’s new limit for hexavalent is 10 parts per billion (ppb), or about 10 drops of water in a swimming pool.
That’s the same limit it had prior to 2017.
In July 2014, California became the first state in the nation to regulate this substance. The MCL was set much lower than the federal standard that sits at 100 ppb for total chromium. Those federal standards were created at a time when hexavalent chromium was not linked to cancer, but subsequent studies have shown a direct correlation.
The standard (then and now) is much higher (500 times) than the state’s public health goal (PHG) of 0.02 parts per billion. The PHG was established by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
By 2017 that MCL was dismissed due to a court case, which said the state failed to consider whether the rule was economically feasible. The state water board vowed to create a new MCL, and 10 years later, we now have it.
Frankly, no level is safe in my opinion, but if these are the cards we are dealt then we need some measured level of safety. We need better national standard too. If California can pass a regulation for chromium-6, then it’s possible for the rest of the country to follow suit.
Just for reference, groundwater in Hinkley tested as high as 580 ppb in the ’90s. So, you can see why the people were feeling those effects. It’s so sad to think that one chemical, one company, and so much negligence could cause this much damage. It’s estimated that it will take at least 150 years to clean up the mess in that town.
The class-action lawsuit against PG&E was filed in 1993, alleging that the company knew that harmful chemicals—especially hexavalent chromium used in production—were seeping into the groundwater and contaminating the water supply.
Ultimately, that case resulted in the largest medical settlement lawsuit in history and put my life on a whole new trajectory. The stories from people who lived there centered around sickness. People had everything from constant nosebleeds to multiple miscarriages to cancer. The town was rural. It was supposed to be a serene, peaceful environment, but something was affecting the people, the wildlife, and the plants.
As I continued my work, I discovered that hexavalent chromium was used everywhere. It was an industry standard, used nationwide by giant corporations such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing and found seeping into water supplies near coal ash dump sites across the country.
In fact, chromium-6 was the single most common corrosive inhibitor used in cooling towers in the United States until the 1990s.
Millions of gallons of this toxic chemical were used everywhere from schools to hospitals to courthouses to food-processing plants to refrigerated warehouses. The cooling towers became filled with massive doses of chromium-6 and then as the water in the towers began to cloud up with minerals, the water would get discharged into the wastewater system, which was little more than unlined lagoons. The lagoons were designed to percolate the wastewater into the earth for “treatment,” but sadly that contaminant went right into the drinking water. I can always tell when a community is dealing with this chemical because the water turns yellow-green.
For years, I couldn’t understand why PG&E was so ruffled by one woman and one community bringing this issue to light. But when you know the dangers of this chemical and you know it’s everywhere, you know that at some point you will have more serious repercussions to deal with.
Industry officials always want us all to believe that these concerns are inflated and that no regulations are needed. They put profits above public health.
The irony is that industry has the most resources, the best technology, and the manpower to clean up this mess, and yet they choose to lie, cheat, sue, intimidate, falsify documents, and outright bully anyone trying to protect the rights of drinking-water consumers.
Ultimately, the Hinkley case taught me that pollution happens, that it affects us all, and that corporations try to cover it up.
Little did I know that my work there was just the tip of the iceberg. When I began, I thought I had discovered a one-off situation, but I’ve come to realize that such issues are in all our backyards. Systematic failures, corruption, and pollution are not stopping, and we need to be informed.
The state’s proposed limit was unanimously passed by the State Water Resources Control Board, though it needs approval from the Office of Administrative Law to take effect.
Once that’s complete, water providers will need to start testing for chromium-6, within six months of the effective date, anticipated in October. When water tests above the limit, water operators will need to submit a compliance plan within 90 days and comply within two to four years, depending on how many customers are served.
I hope that as these regulations start working that lawmakers will see just how much we need a national MCL, as well—and one that is as close to the public health goal as possible.
New Documentary
Think these toxic issues are recent? It’s important to know that communities have been fighting for their health and safety for more than four decades. Love Canal was one of the first major communities to bring these issues to light.
Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal tells the dramatic and inspiring story of the ordinary women who fought against overwhelming odds for the health and safety of their families. In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal, a working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, discovered that their homes, schools, and playgrounds were built on top of a former chemical waste dump, which was now leaking toxic substances and wreaking havoc on their health. Through interviews with many of the extraordinary housewives turned activists, the film shows how they effectively challenged those in power, forced America to reckon with the human cost of unregulated industry, and created a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill.
Nature As A Musical Artist
Think nature should win a Grammy? Wish you could listen to nature sounds for a good cause? Now you can. A new global music initiative enables music fans to support nature simply by listening to her wondrous sounds.
The Sounds Right initiative is recognizing NATURE as an official artist with her own profile on major streaming platforms like Spotify. By listening to music that features sounds of the natural world, fans will help to fund nature conservation and restoration projects in our most precious and precarious ecosystems.
Pretty cool, right?
Sounds Right is the culmination of a unique collaboration between global artists, nature sound libraries, renowned producers, creatives, and environmental groups who want to put music at the heart of a global conversation about nature’s conservation and restoration.
All you have to do is listen. Get started here.
One of the few certainties in life is that when someone or something claims that they can self-regulate, it means that they cannot and must not be allowed to do so. If there were to be something greater than absolute certainty, it would be that concept as applied to corporations.