by Jessica A. York, originally posted on September 24, 2016

 

WATSONVILLE >> Actress Julia Roberts helped bring the spectre of carcinogenic water contamination into movie theaters and living rooms across the country with her starting role in the film “Erin Brockovich” 16 years ago.

Two years ago, California responded to rising health concerns surrounding the contaminant known as chromium 6, or hexavalent Chromium, by strengthening its regulations, reducing acceptable maximum concentration levels 80 percent. Drinking water agencies statewide were given just a year to come into compliance, though later legislation amended the mandate to allow a five-year grace period, as long as each agency provided a road map to meet the deadline.

In recent days, a national report released by a Washington D.C.-based environmental advocacy group details how drinking water agencies in Santa Cruz County and beyond continue to wrestle with the contaminant.

The Environmental Working Group details instances of the compound contaminating water supplies for more than an estimated 200 million Americans in all 50 states in its report, relying on federal data from nationwide U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-mandated drinking water tests from 2013 to 2015. California is the only state setting regulatory standards, while federal regulations set at 100 parts per billion are under review, according to the report.

In 2014, California strengthened its chromium 6 drinking water standard, which establishes a limit on the concentration of a contaminant in drinking water, from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion in 2014. The standard was created based on a nonmandatory public health goal set by the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard of .02 parts per billion, scaled back by estimated detectability, treatment and cost issues. One part per billion equals about a drop of water in an Olympic-size swimming pool.

“Comparing the public health goal to levels of contamination found in the EPA tests, EWG estimates that if left untreated, chromium 6 in tap water will cause more than 12,000 excess cases of cancer by the end of the century,” the Environmental Working Group report states.

Of the five large drinking water suppliers in Santa Cruz County, each system’s average chromium 6 rates are already below the state mandated maximum, but several wells within Watsonville and Soquel Creek are individually over the state limit.

The two agencies, which must bring their highest chromium level wells down, differ widely in their progress toward addressing the issue. Both draw from the same water source, the Aromas Red Sands Aquifer, which serves much of South County and is high in naturally occurring chromium 6, according to officials.

CANCER CONCERNS

Chromium is a heavy metal that occurs throughout the environment and appears both as a byproduct of man-made industry and can be naturally occurring. It is benign as chromium 3, while studies have shown that the chromium 6 version of the compound, recognized for its potential harm when ingested through drinking water over a lifetime, may cause cancer. A 2008 study by the Department of Health and Human Services National Toxicology Program showed chromium 6 caused mouth cancer in rats and intestinal cancer in mice.

Experts describe cancer-causing contaminants such as chromium 6 as chronic, not acute, meaning that its dangers at low levels come over an extended time period. Drinking water with levels of the compound above or below the state’s .02 public health goal is not the difference between safe and dangerous, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.

“The PHG represents the level of hexavalent chromium at which no adverse health effects would be anticipated over an entire lifetime of exposure to the most sensitive population,” the agency wrote in a chromium 6 fact sheet. “Drinking water is frequently demonstrated as safe to drink even if it contains chemicals at levels exceeding their PHGs.”

Santa Cruz County Water Resources Division Director John Ricker said he overseas about 130 small-scale water systems countywide, and about eight South County systems are struggling to comply with state regulations in the most cost-effective methods.

“The standards have recently changed, and they’re based on somebody drinking that water for 70 years,” Ricker said. “The level of risk, I don’t know that I want to say that it’s relatively low, but I don’t know that people need to run out and do anything while they wait for Watsonville to get their treatment set up.”

TREATING THE PROBLEM

Watsonville, whose average chromium contamination rates are the highest in the county, is in the second year of a five-year rate hike to raise the needed $20 million to build treatment facilities at five of its contaminated wells, with water from a sixth affected well to be piped to an adjacent well’s treatment facility. The project’s design phase will extend through the end of the year, and then the city will spend another year seeking grant and low- or no-interest loans to reduce the project’s impact on customers before it can begin a year of construction, said Steve Palmisano, Watsonville’s public works director.

Soquel Creek Water District was the first agency in the state to apply for a permit to operate a full-scale demonstration chromium 6 groundwater filtration facility using ion-exchange resin technology and the district board of directors set a goal of treating its water down to one-fifth of the state’s standard. Its plant, on San Andreas Road, has been in operation since 2014 and has reduced the district’s average chromium 6 levels from 5.7 parts per billion to 1.8 parts per billion annually, said Christine Mead, district operations and maintenance manager. Officials expect to complete construction of a permanent facility at the district’s Bonita well site by spring 2018. The facility will treat three of four wells known to contain chromium 6, with the fourth kept idle except for emergency need. Two wells have been taken offline since the state regulations went into affect.

“The district has been extremely proactive in adjusting the chromium 6 and started looking at treatment options as soon as the public health goal was finalized in 2011. We did some depth-discreet chromium testing on our affected wells back in 2009,” Mead said.

FOOTING THE BILL

As Watsonville continues to work toward building treatment infrastructure, it has not begun to address its contamination other than to turn to its highest chromium-rated wells last, Palmisano said.

“From my position managing the utility, I’m completely 100 percent in favor of improving public health, improving the standards that we use for treating drinking water,” Palmisano said. “It’s wonderful to be part of the leading edge in the world in implementing these health standards. At the same time, for poor communities like Watsonville, it’s really critical that the state, if they want to do these initiatives, that they also provide funding to help us implement these programs.”

Soquel Creek Water District customers are in the first of a three-year water rate and service charge increases, which will help offset costs for the new plant, among other projects.

To date, the district has spent more than $3.5 million on its efforts to study, permit and design and develop its treatment solution, according to Taj Dufour, engineering manager and chief engineer for Soquel Creek Water District. He estimated it will cost another $8 million for construction of the permanent facility and $237,000 a year in operation costs to reach the district’s goal of 2 parts per billion chromium 6 levels. He said the district has obtained a $800,000 grant thus far to assist it in its cleanup efforts.

Chromium 6 testing results

• EPA maximum: 100 parts per billion

• California maximum: 10 ppb.

• Public Health Goal: .02 ppb.

• Watsonville city water: Average: 9 ppb. Range: .047 to 18 ppb.

• Soquel Creek Water: Average: 5.7 ppb. Range: 0 to 35 ppb.

• Santa Cruz city water: Average: .051 ppb. Range: 0 to .14 ppb.

• San Lorenzo Valley water: Average: .1 ppb. Range: 0 to .4. ppb

• Scotts Valley city water: Average .02 ppb. Range: 0 to .06 ppb.

Source: Environmental Working Group’s September 2016 report.

CHROMIUM 6 DEFINED

Chromium is a heavy metal that occurs throughout the environment. The trivalent form is a required nutrient and has very low toxicity. The hexavalent form, also commonly known as chromium 6, is more toxic and has been known to cause cancer when inhaled. In recent scientific studies in laboratory animals, hexavalent chromium has also been linked to cancer when ingested.