PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — State officials have been handed a deadline by a court to come up with harsher standards for permissible levels of hexavalent chromium in drinking water, according to My Desert News.
The California Department of Public Health was sued by The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Environmental Working Group last year over the current regulations regarding the potential carcinogen, stated the article.
Also known as chromium-6, hexavalent chromium occurs naturally in parts of the Coachella Valley where it dissolves into groundwater from the San Andreas Fault.
Nicholas Morales, the lead attorney for NRDC, said Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo ruled that the state should propose a standard by the end of August, noted the article.
“The court found that the agency was in violation of the law and ordered them to set this regulatory limit, and it provided an interim deadline requiring that the agency propose the regulations by the end of August,” Morales said. “Then we’re going to come back to court in October in order to discuss the need for perhaps a final deadline.”
Read the entire article here.
