Environmental activist Erin Brockovich and the Environmental Working Group have called on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set a maximum allowable level for hexavalent chromium in water.

 

Then lack of a standard is a major area of contention for well owners near leaking coal ash ponds owned by Duke Energy. The state is using the the federal standard of 100 parts per billion for chromium. State environmental regulators say most wells near coal ash ponds have tested below that level. However, the state issued "Do Not Drink" notices to numerous well owners based on a standard of .07 parts per billion, a standard state scientists from the Department of Health and Human Services say is mandated by the Coal Ash Management ACT.  That level is thought to increase the cancer risk for one in a million people, proved they drink the contaminated water over a 70-year period. The "Do Not Drink" notices were rescinded earlier this year after with state environmental and public health officials concluded water at those levels were safe. 

 

Brockovich , whose fight over hexavalent chromium contamination in Hinkley, Calif., in the 1990s was made into a movie named after her and starring Julia Roberts, signed a letter with the nonprofit Environmental Working Group calling for a federal standard for hexavalent chromium. 

 

"We write with deep concern about this continued delay," Brockovich and Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook wrote in the letter. "It is clear that the delay is sowing confusion among state and local regulators, utilities and the public about how much hexavalent chromium is safe in drinking water. This confusion is resulting many Americans’ exposure to unregulated levels of hexavalent chromium, which federal, state and independent scientists agree pose health hazards."