Chromium VI in San Fernando Valley

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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Troubled Waters

by Chip Jacobs and Kevin Uhrich
Los Angeles City Beat
April 22, 2004

Chromium 6 is the same poison made infamous by Erin Brockovich. Now it
poses a 'clear and present danger' to the water supply of Los Angeles.

When word broke three years ago that the poison Erin Brockovich had
fought in tiny Hinkley, California, had also contaminated groundwater
supplies in the dense San Fernando Valley, the countermeasures rippled
through California officialdom with a panicky speed.

Wells were closed. Hearings were convened. Laws were passed. Sales of
water-filtration kits boomed. Everybody, it seemed, was talking about
the perils ? or the unwarranted hysteria ? created by hexavalent
chromium, a versatile industrial compound used by Valley manufacturers,
particularly those in the former Cold War aircraft production business.

The yellow-green stuff made infamous in Brockovich?s biographical movie,
popularly known as chromium 6, exudes no odor or taste. Health officials
long ago listed it as a powerful carcinogen when inhaled as dust.
Whether it causes serious illness when consumed in water is officially
unknown, despite years of concern.

With federal eyes fixed these days on homeland security and the state
focused on other toxins such as perchlorate ? a rocket-fuel booster that
has permeated sensitive areas from Azusa to Pasadena to the Santa Susana
Pass on the border of Ventura and Los Angeles counties ? hand-wringing
over what to do about chromium 6 has receded from the mainstream agenda.
Yet the situation ? both underground and in Sacramento?s policymaking
world ? remains anything but static or calming, a CityBeat investigation
has found.

...

*Water technicians suspect defense contractors such as Lockheed-Martin
Corp. and Menasco Aerosystems, and others such as Drilube and Excello
Plating, created the ?hot spots.? (Some of those manufacturers no longer
operate in the area.)

...

for the entire story, see
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=844&IssueNum=46


--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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