Chromium-6 is a cancer-causing chemical made famous in the movie “Erin Brockovich.” Chromium-6 is a pollutant from chemical factories, but in the Morongo Basin, it occurs naturally, dissolving from rocks into the groundwater. Federal standards for total chromium, which includes chromium-6 and non-cancer-causing chromium-3, are 100 parts per billion. California set the standards for total chromium at 50 parts per billion, but as of July 1, California water districts may have to meet an even lower standard of 10 parts per billion for chromium-6. Whether the water you drink in the Morongo Basin meets this new standard depends on which water agency you get your water from. Hi-Desert Water District Operations Manager Mark Ban said Yucca Valley’s water has chromium-6 levels of only 1.6 parts per billion. Bighorn-Desert View Water Agency’s General Manager Marina West said her wells haven’t been tested for chromium-6 in several years, but last time they were tested, the results showed 5 parts per billion. But Joshua Basin Water District and Twentynine Palms Water District may have to start testing and treating their water supplies. Joshua Basin’s General Manager Kurt Sauer said total chromium levels in his agency’s five wells range from 12 to 26 parts per billion; Twentynine Palms Water Agency’s General Manager Tamara Alaniz said four of her water district’s nine wells have chromium-6 levels that are above the proposed new limits, but she stressed that all of them are less than 15 parts per billion. Both Sauer and Alaniz said the costs will be significant to test and treat the wells to lower the chromium-6 levels; Sauer estimated it could cost up to $1 million just for the first year; Alaniz estimated it would cost $500,000 for testing and treating the water the first year, and subsequent years the costs would be several hundred thousand dollars per year. One method to lower chromium-6 levels would be by blending water from different wells together. According to Sauer, a water agency in northern California has recently challenged the new levels in court.
