I REST MY CASE

WATER INDUSTRY NEWS
Pacific Gas & Electric ordered to provide clean drinking water
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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

HINKLEY, CALIF. — Water regulators announced on Tuesday that Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) must provide clean drinking water to residents whose groundwater is contaminated with hexavalent chromium, the San Bernardino County Sun reported.

Between 1952 and 1966, PG&E used hexavalent chromium to fight corrosion in cooling towers at a facility southeast of Hinkley, Calif.

Some of the chromium-tainted wastewater leaked from ponds and contaminated a 2-mile-long portion of an aquifer.

A legal battle involving the toxic spill was the subject of the 2000 movie “Erin Brockovich.”

The order will be formally issued by Nov. 30, but PG&E has already started distributing bottled water to residents whose wells have more than 3.1 ppb of hexavalent chromium, the article stated.

“The order may not go into effect for a couple weeks, but it can be in effect in perpetuity,” said Lauri Kemper, assistant executive officer for the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Board. “And we can require reports to verify they’re doing it.”

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