Pollutant made famous by Erin Brockovich flows from taps in Las Vegas, nationwide

A pollutant made famous by environmental activist Erin Brockovich shows up in drinking water supplies across the country, including the Las Vegas Valley, according to a new report by the Environmental Working Group.

The report, released Tuesday, calls on federal regulators to establish a national health standard for chromium-6, a carcinogen that is currently unregulated outside of California but can be found in trace amounts in valley tap water.

Roughly 218 million Americans, more than two-thirds of the nation’s population, are being exposed to the compound in their drinking water, according to the Washington, D.C.-based environmental group.

The new analysis is based on water sampling from utilities nationwide. It shows chromium-6 in the tap water delivered by 17 purveyors in eight Nevada counties, but in concentrations well below California’s limit of 10 parts per billion.

Las Vegas Valley Water District spokesman Bronson Mack called the report “technically accurate but misleading.”

“The quality of Southern Nevada’s water meets or surpasses all safe drinking water standards,” he said, and that includes the Environmental Protection Agency’s broader limit on total chromium, which is restricted to no more than 100 ppb.

Chromium-6 turned up at a level of about 0.2 ppb in samples collected between 2013 and 2015 by the water district, Nevada’s largest water utility, and North Las Vegas. The average concentration of the compound in Henderson and Boulder City during that time was about 0.06 ppb, according to the report.

One part per billion is roughly the equivalent to one drop of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Water delivered by the Truckee Meadows Water Authority, which serves the Reno area, showed an average chromium-6 level of 0.5 ppb.

The highest level reported in Nevada was in the Nye County community of Round Mountain, where chromium-6 was found at a concentration of 3 ppb, less than a third of California’s limit.

Citing a link between the ingested pollutant and cancer, California became the first state to regulate chromium-6 in drinking water in July 2014.

The move came two decades after Brockovich led her now-famous crusade on behalf of the small desert town of Hinkley, California, where Pacific Gas &Electric is still cleaning up a massive plume of contaminated groundwater left over from its use of the compound to prevent rust in its natural gas distribution system.

Levels in Hinkley spiked to as high as 580 ppb in some groundwater wells and to more than 9,000 ppb right around the compressor station where PG&E once used the chemical compound and then dumped it into unlined waste ponds, according to various media reports.

The Environmental Working Group argues that California’s chromium-6 limit of 10 ppb is far too high, a result the group blames on a flawed analysis by regulators and “aggressive lobbying by industry and water utilities.”

The environmental group said the legal limit should be closer to the public health goal of 0.02 ppb favored by some scientists in California.

The group said a similar “tug-of-war” between scientists and lobbyists is now being waged at the federal level, stalling regulations the group contends could prevent more than 12,000 cases of cancer by the end of the century.

Mack said the chromium-6 in the local water supply is naturally occurring and not a byproduct of industrial activity. It’s found here at such low levels that no additional treatment is likely to be needed when and if the EPA announces a limit for the compound, he said.

Its presence in the valley’s drinking water is no secret. The Las Vegas Valley Water District, Henderson and North Las Vegas all report their chromium-6 levels as part of the annual water quality reports they send out to customers. It’s generally listed under contaminants that are monitored but unregulated.

Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter.