Hexavalent Chromium In Most Coachella Valley Drinking Water Supplies @ 150 to 1,000X State Limits

[hatrack]

Hexavalent chromium, a potentially cancer-causing heavy metal made famous by activist Erin Brockovich, is found in drinking water supplies throughout most of the Coachella Valley at 150 to more than 1,000 times above California’s public health goal, a Desert Sun review of local water agencies’ well-testing results found.

The National Toxicology Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded in 2008 that hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6, in drinking water shows “clear evidence” of causing cancer in laboratory animals. And a 2010 draft toxicological review by the EPA found the contaminant in tap water is “likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”

But scientific study on chromium-6 is ongoing, and some recent findings call into question at what levels and under what circumstances ingesting the metal may cause cancer.


California's public health goal for chromium-6 levels is not a regulatory standard, only a step in the process of establishing one. State and federal regulators have yet to set a maximum allowable drinking water contaminant level for the metal, but work toward one is under way.

EDIT

http://www.mydesert.com/article/20120219/NEWS07/202190314/Tainted-water-Chromium-6-above-California-goal-Desert-Sun-investigation

[izquierdista]

1. I guess that's what did my mother in

She was healthy enough when she moved there at 30, but then, after 60 years of drinking the water, it finally caught up with her!

[NYC_SKP]

2. Ah, Chromium-6, what took down Hinkley, CA.

I've been to Hinkley a couple times, very nice people but a ghost town look to the place.

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