Toms River Drinking Water Contains Erin Brockovich Toxin, But Below EPA-Allowed Levels

TOMS RIVER, NJ — Toms River's water supply tested positive for chromium-6, the cancer-causing toxin that was made famous in the 2000 Julia Roberts movie "Erin Brockovich," according to a new study published Tuesday by the Environmental Working Group.

Although the water provided by Suez Water South Jersey, the water company formerly known as United Water, does not exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection's maximum of 100 parts per billion of total chromium, it does exceed 0.02 parts per billion, a level that California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment set as a public health goal in 2011, the study explains. That level "would pose negligible risk over a lifetime of consumption," according to the study.

Jane Kunka, a spokeswoman for Suez Water South Jersey, said the company monitors the water under the EPA's Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule 3, "and under that we test well below that limit."

Chromium-6 is not regulated by the EPA, but Kunka said the regulations may change. Suez is keeping "a very close eye on it," Kunka said.

Water contamination has been a prominent issue in Toms River going back to the 1980s, with ongoing doubts about government studies that have been unable to link more than 100 childhood cancer cases to pollutants dumped near water wells in the township in the 1970s.

Even as recently as a February 2015 meeting in Toms River, federal officials told residents they were unable to conclude that levels of the industrial waste SAN trimer (styrene-acrylonitrile trimer) caused cancer, a conclusion that drew scorn from the families affected most directly by the cancer cluster research.

SAN Trimer wasn't identified until 1997 - 26 years after the public learned independent waste hauler Nicholas Fernicola had secretly dumped waste from Union Carbide in Bound Brook onto a 3-acre parcel of Reich Farm, a site off Route 9, that he leased in 1971, according to an NJ.com report on the February 2015 meeting. Reich Farm has been on the EPA's Superfund list for cleanup since 1983.

Parents of stricken children are convinced that that clandestine disposal, along with dumping by chemical giant Ciba-Geigy Corp., which once called Toms River its home, caused an abnormally high number of childhood cancer cases in the 1980s and 1990s.

Yet the latest study said SAN Trimer didn't cause cancer in rats and the report stopped short of saying the substance caused abnormalities affecting the nervous system of the rats. It only noted the abnormalities in the rats fed SAN Trimer.

That angered some parents, who said they couldn't see how the scientists couldn't make a connection between those abnormalities and the neuroblastoma - cancer of the sympathetic nervous system - their children had, the NJ.com report said.

Chromium-6, also referred to as hexavalent chromium, causes cancer, reproductive problems and liver damage even from little exposure, the Environmental Working Group report says. The organization 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.

California set 0.02 parts per billion as its goal after Brockovich was successful in building a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) of California in 1993 that blamed the company for contaminating local water. The actual legal cap in California is 10 parts per billion.

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 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.

"Yet federal regulations are stalled by a chemical industry challenge that could mean no national regulation of a chemical state scientists in California and elsewhere say causes cancer when ingested at even extraordinarily low levels," according to the report.

Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection, issued a statement on the study, 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."

The EPA released a statement saying it is taking "many actions to improve information on chromium and its potential health risks in drinking water."

The 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 it, and expects the draft IRIS assessment will be released for public comment in 2017, the agency's statement said.

EPA has a drinking water standard of 0.1 milligrams per liter (mg/l) or 100 parts per billion (ppb) for total chromium.

Here are the chromium levels found in Toms River, according to the Environmental Working Group study. The test dates are in parentheses. Read the full study here.

• Parkway Station, 0.053 ppb (Aug. 28, 2013)
• Route 70 Water Treatment plant, 0.1 ppb (Aug. 28, 2013)
• Holly Plant, 0.0 ppb (Aug. 28, 2013)
• Brookside Plant, 0.0 ppb (Aug. 28, 2013)
• Jakes Branch South Toms River Well #32, 0.059 ppb (Aug. 28, 2013)
• Windsor Plant, 0.1 ppb (Aug. 28, 2013)
• Berkeley Plant, 0.077 ppb (Aug. 28, 2013)
• Distribution System Max. Res. Time in Dist. System, 0.1 ppb (Aug. 28, 2013)
• Route 70 WTP, 0.089 ppb (Feb. 26, 2014)
• Jakes Branch South Toms River Well #32, 0.065 ppb (Feb. 26, 2014)
• Holly Plant, 0.13 ppb (Feb. 26, 2014)
• Parkway Station, 0.076 ppb (Feb. 26, 2014)
• Windsor Plant, 0.04 ppb (Feb. 26, 2014)
• Distribution System Max. Res. Time in Dist. System, 0.1 ppb (Feb. 26, 2014)
• Brookside Plant, 0.071 ppb (Feb. 26, 2014)
• Berkeley Plant, 0.085 ppb (April 30, 2014)

Image via Shutterstock