Livingston Officials Say Town’s Water Is ‘Clean and Safe’ After Toxin Report Emerges

LIVINGSTON, NJ — Livingston municipal officials are advising residents that the township’s drinking water is “clean and safe” in light of a recent report that suggested at least 138 New Jersey towns have the cancer-causing toxin in their drinking water that was made famous in the 2000 Julia Roberts movie "Erin Brockovich.”

The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment, analyzed federal data from nationwide drinking water tests showing that the compound contaminates water supplies for more than 200 million Americans in all 50 states.

The group released its list of possibly affected towns this week, which includes the “Livingston Township Division of Water.”

• See related article: At Least 138 N.J. Towns Have Drinking Water Toxin Made Famous By Erin Brockovich: Study

LIVINGSTON'S WATER

Livingston township officials released the following statement about the study’s findings on Wednesday:

“Concerns have been raised by the release of compiled data that found approximately 75% of water in the U.S. potentially affected by chromium-6. In fact, all of the water samples from New Jersey contained at least some trace of chromium-6, which can occur naturally in the environment… All water providers are required to sample for certain unregulated contaminants, including chromium-6. Livingston strictly follows the sampling guidelines of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”

The statement continued:

“The EPA adopted a standard of 100 µg/L (parts per billion) for total chromium in 1991. Please note that there is no separate standard for chromium-6 in the State of New Jersey; measurements are of total chromium. Livingston township water contains chromium levels well below this limit; the township's highest total chromium sample, which includes chromium-6, was 3 µg/L. This is the equivalent of 3 drops in an Olympic-size swimming pool.”

Livingston officials stated that they expect the NJ DEP to issue a more formal statement in the near future.

“While the compiled data featured the names of only particular communities (including Livingston), the map of affected areas shows that this affects nearly all drinking water systems in the state of New Jersey, likely at least in part, due to the naturally occurring environmental nature of chromium-6,” Livingston officials said.

“Livingston's drinking water is clean and safe, and there is no treatment necessary,” town officials concluded.

Following the report's release, Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, issued a statement, noting New Jersey utilizes the EPA’s standard for total chromium.

"No New Jersey water supplies have exceeded this level," he said. "New Jersey is participating in the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s collection of testing data for hexavalent chromium."

EPA STATEMENT ON CHROMIUM IN DRINKING WATER

Ensuring safe drinking water for all Americans is a top priority for EPA. The agency has taken many actions to improve information on chromium and its potential health risks in drinking water. EPA and states are responsible for ensuring that public water systems are in compliance with the current standard for total chromium.

The agency has also collected nationally representative data on the occurrence of both total chromium and hexavalent chromium through the third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR3).
EPA is actively working on the development of the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of hexavalent chromium, which will include a comprehensive evaluation of potential health effects associated with hexavalent chromium, and EPA expects that the draft IRIS assessment will be released for public comment in 2017.

Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, before EPA can decide whether to regulate a contaminant, it must meet three criteria:

• The contaminant may have an adverse effect on the health of person
• It is known to occur or there is a substantial likelihood that the contaminant will occur in public water systems with a frequency and at levels of public health concern
• In the sole judgment of the EPA Administrator, the regulation of the contaminant presents a meaningful opportunity for health risk reductions for persons served by public water systems. EPA has a drinking water standard of 0.1 milligrams per liter (mg/l) or 100 parts per billion (ppb) for total chromium.

This includes all forms of chromium, including hexavalent chromium. Only one of the almost 5,000 public water systems that monitored total chromium under the UCMR3 reported results that exceeded EPA’s standard.

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