ICYMI: Some Tampa Bay Towns Have Drinking Water Toxin Made Famous by Erin Brockovich, Study Finds

At least 28 communities in the Tampa Bay area have the cancer-causing toxin in their drinking water that was cast in the national spotlight by the 2000 Julia Roberts movie “Erin Brockovich,” according to a study published Tuesday by the Environmental Working Group.

While water provided in the communities does not exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards of 100 parts per billion of total chromium, samples do exceed the 0.02-parts-per-billion level set by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment as a public health goal in 2011, the study explains. The level set in California poses a “negligible risk over a lifetime of consumption,” according to the study.

The toxin Chromium-6 causes cancer, reproductive problems and liver damage even from little exposure, the report says.

California's public health goal was set after Brockovich was nearly successful in building a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company of California in 1993 that blamed the company for contaminating local water.

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit, 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.

"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.

EWG 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.

The EWG group noted that in the film "Erin Brockovich," the environmental crusader played by Roberts confronts the lawyer of a power company accused of polluting the tap water of Hinkley, California, with Chromium-6.

When the lawyer picks up a glass of water, the report notes, Brockovich says: “We had that water brought in 'specially for you folks. Came from a well in Hinkley.”

The lawyer sets down the glass and says, "I think this meeting’s over."

According to the study, these areas exceeded the report’s – not the federal EPA’s – acceptable level of Chromium-6 in tap water (0.02 parts per billion):

• Sarasota County Special Utilities District
• City of Sarasota
• North Port Utilities
• Englewood Water District
• Pluris-South Gate Utilities
• Manatee County Utilities Department
• Palmetto Water Department
• City of Tampa Water Department
• South Central Service Area
• Northwest Utilities
• University of South Florida
• Plant City Utility
• Temple Terrace Utility
• MacDill Air Force Base
• Seaboard Utilities
• Pinellas County Utilities
• City of St. Petersburg
• Clearwater Water System
• Pinellas Park Water Department
• Tarpon Springs Water System
• Safety Harbor Water Department
• Gulfport Water System
• Pasco County Utilities District – West
• Seven Springs
• New Port Richey Water Department
• City of Zephyrhills
• Dade City Water Department
• Hudson Waterworks

The average levels of Chromium-6 found on a countywide basis were as follows:

• Sarasota County – 0.0316 parts per billion
• Manatee County – 0.0418 parts per billion
• Pinellas County – 0.0860 parts per billion
• Hillsborough County – 0.0867 parts per billion
• Pasco County – 0.491 parts per billion

To view the full interactive map related to the study, visit the Environmental Working Group online. Read the full report at the Environmental Working Group website here.

A request for comment from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection was not immediately answered.

With reporting by Patch's Tom Davis

Image via Shutterstock