Madison WI Water Utility began testing for Chromium 6 after an environmental group claimed it found this possible carcinogen in our drinking water. The city of Madison's tests found it too. Chromium-6 is the same chemical compound found within the water of Hinkley California which was brought to everyone's attention by the involvement of Erin Brockovich and of course the movie staring Julia Roberts.
Hinkley California's levels peaked greater than those found in our wells, but I'm still concerned! The current EPA standard for total Chromium is .1mg but they do not yet have guidelines for Chromium-6 specifically.
There were 12 samples tested from four wells in the Madison area. All of them tested positive for Chromium 6. The well that supplies all of my drinking water at home tested with the highest levels of Chromium-6.
Our well has 2.11 ug/l of total chromium and 1.73 ug/l Chromium-6 which converts to 0.00211 mg/l total chromium and 0.00173 mg/l chromium-6. So if you trust the EPA's current assessment of safe drinking water (total chromium levels of 0.1 mg/l) our wells should be fine.
According to Wikipedia, however, the Average levels of Chromium-6 in Hinkley were recorded as 1.19 ug/l with a peak of 3.09 ug/l. That average of 1.19 ug/l is less than the amount my well contains.
Also, if the wells are safe according to EPA standard, why has this been in the news? I guess the answer may be because EPA is currently drafting new guidelines for chromium 6 and they are expected to be released within months. It is an expectation that the EPA will be tightening drinking water standards.
I'm interested to see what the EPA comes up for as a standard for Chromium-6 and I'm currently looking at water filtration systems that remove it. I don't want to start drinking bottled water at home because it's such a waste of resources but I also want to make sure that I'm protecting my health.
It looks like the best water filters that I've found so far that remove Chromium-6 are going to run a couple hundred dollars. This is not exactly what I had planned on purchasing with a portion of my tax return...however I believe it's worth it.
I'm still reading "The Body Toxic" and I feel a greater desire to be pay attention to these issues more closely as they affect my health and the health of my neighbors!
This issue also ties into my New-Years resolution to try and be a more informed consumer. As a consumer of Madison tap water from Well number 14...I'm trying to stay informed.
However, I must admit that all of this converting parts-per-million and parts-per-billion to ug/l to mg/l is completely draining me!
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