CHROMIUM FOUND IN A.V. WELLS EXPERTS UNCERTAIN OF CHEMICAL'S ORIGIN.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Chromium 6 - the chemical villain in the movie ``Erin Brockovich'' - has turned up in drinking water wells in Lancaster, Littlerock, Palmdale and Lake Los Angeles.

But experts are not sure where it comes from - industrial pollution built up over years, illegal dumping or natural deposits - and there is even scientific debate over how hazardous it is for human health.

``Anything that seeps into the groundwater zone would certainly be a suspect for the contamination,'' said geologist Jim Slosson, who worked with attorney Ed Masry - the employer of the real-life Erin Brockovich - in the early stages of the Hinkley, Calif., chromium 6 investigation.

Prodded by the discovery, Los Angeles County waterworks officials were ordered last month by the Board of Supervisors to come up with a plan to remove carcinogens and other impurities from the 30 county wells in the Antelope Valley contaminated with chromium 6.

The supervisors also asked water officials to study the effect of shutting down or limiting the use of the wells.

The report is due by Dec. 14.

The hunt for chromium - a chemical used in electroplating, tanning leather and making steel, among other industrial applications - was spurred by the ``Erin Brockovich'' movie, which told how people in the town of Hinkley, outside Barstow, were sickened.

Tests first showed the contaminant in wells in the San Fernando Valley, then in the Antelope Valley.

Water officials note that the levels are thousands of times less than was detected in Hinkley: 17.6 parts per billion at the most contaminated Antelope Valley well, compared to 24,000 parts per billion at Hinkley, where the contamination came from its use in Pacific Gas and Electric cooling towers.

Prime suspects in the origin of the chemical are dumping of industrial wastes and aircraft factories at Air Force Plant 42, although nobody knows for sure. Experts say the substance is present in some rock formations, and evidence is just now turning up that it may be more prevalent naturally than presently believed.

One problem policy makers face in deciding what to do is that interest in chromium 6, until recently, has been slight.

Neither the state nor the federal government has set standards for chromium 6 in drinking water, nor do they require water districts to test for it. They regulate it only as it is combined with other less toxic forms of chromium, mainly chromium 3 - an essential nutrient for the human body.

One state agency, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, last year suggested a ``health protective level'' of chromium 6 in drinking water at 0.2 parts per billion - so tiny that no laboratory in California is certified to test at that level.

The state Department of Health Services - which allows drinking water to contain up to 50 parts per billion of total chromium - is examining the recommendation. It has prepared regulations expected to take effect Jan. 1 to require water districts to test for chromium 6 down to 1 part per billion.

``Once our department has sufficient information on chromium 6, it will re-evaluate the total chromium standard or consider regulating chromium 6 separately,'' spokeswoman Lea Brooks said.

She noted that public water systems are not required by law to clean their water to the 0.2 parts per billion level, which is part of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment's ``public health goal'' of 2.5 parts per billion for all types of chromium.

``The state legislature intended the public health goal to be the starting point for the Department of Health Services when determining the most appropriate drinking water standard,'' Brooks said. ``When actually setting a drinking water standard, there is a balance that must be reached between cost to the public and the benefit the public receives in risk reduction.''

All the news about chromium 6 has concerned Antelope Valley residents, officials say.

``We've had quite a few of our customers call in and ask questions,'' said Dennis LaMoreaux, general manager of Palmdale Water District. ``We've taken some samples from people's housings that were concerned.''

Of 26 Palmdale Water District wells, he said, 15 showed detectable levels of chromium and five showed detectable amounts of chromium 6 - the highest at 5 parts per billion.

Whereas the 30 contaminated county wells stretch from west Lancaster to Littlerock to Lake Los Angeles, the five problematic Palmdale wells are all just south of U.S. Air Force Plant 42, between Avenue P and Avenue P-8 from 30th Street East to 10th Street East.

The fear that chromium 6 in drinking water is carcinogenic is based mainly on a 1968 study on 66 female mice, in which two of the mice developed malignant stomach tumors.

A 13-year Chinese study on 10,000 people who drank water contaminated by an alloy plant found no increase in cancer deaths. The water - contaminated at 20,000 parts per billion with chromium 6 - caused abscesses in their mouths, diarrhea, abdominal pain, indigestion and vomiting, the study said.

But chromium 6 is known to cause cancer when inhaled, and state researchers say they are playing it safe by assuming it is carcinogenic when it is swallowed.

``For the protection of public health, it is safer to assume that a substance that is carcinogenic by one route may also be carcinogenic by other routes,'' the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment said in its February 1999 report on chromium.

Los Angeles County Environmental Toxicology Bureau Deputy Director Wasfy Shindy, who directed the tests on the county wells, said he believes the state should lower its 50 parts per billion chromium standard.

``It's not fair to let the people drink out of there,'' Shindy said. ``Nobody knows at what level chromium 6 causes cancer.''

Shindy said the levels of chromium detected in the county wells surprised him. He had the tests repeated as confirmation, he said.

``The first time, I couldn't believe it myself,'' Shindy said.

Water officials disagree about whether technology even exists to clean water of chromium at levels as low as 0.2 parts per billion, or whether it exists but would be expensive.

If the county decides to cap the contaminated wells, Antelope Valley- East Kern Water Agency officials say they don't know if they can make up the difference with water pulled from the California Aqueduct.

AVEK will draw approximately 82,000 acre-feet - about 26.7 billion gallons - out of the California Aqueduct this year to supplement local well supplies, agency engineer Curtis Paxton said.

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Map: L.A. County waterworks wells where carcinogen Chromium 6 has been detected.