I just saw this on Twitter from @ewgtoxics, and since the post said "Was your city tested?" obviously I checked to see if Milwaukee made the list. Sadly, it did.
I love Milwaukee water, but this new study from a DC-based advocacy group may alarm some. And, if you're reading this in Madison you might really be scared.
Laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental Working Group (EWG) found hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6, in the drinking water of 31 of 35 selected U.S. cities. Among those with the highest levels were Norman, Okla.; Honolulu; and Riverside, Calif.
Milwaukee and Chicago both had .18 parts per billion (ppb) of chromium-6 in their drinking water. Madison, though, clocked in at 1.58 parts per billion (ppb), making it the fourth worst water city in the survey.
In 25 cities tested by EWG, concentrations of chromium-6 in tap water were higher than California's proposed public health limit of 0.06 ppb. In Norman (population 90,000), the level was more than 200 times the state's proposed safe level.
The hazards of chromium-6 contamination first came to light in 1993, when Erin Brockovich helped build a now famous via the movie class action lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) for polluting the water supply of Hinkley, Calif. The suit eventually led to a $333 million settlement.
The news release on this issue is here and I'll post two more paragraphs from it.
"Every single day, pregnant mothers in Norman, Okla., school children in Madison, Wis., and many other Americans are drinking water laced with this cancer-causing chemical," said EWG senior scientist Rebecca Sutton, Ph.D. "If the EPA required local water utilities to test for hexavalent chromium, the public would at least know if it was present in their local water. Without mandatory tests and a safe legal limit that all utilities must meet, many of us will continue to swallow some quantity of this carcinogen every day."
Concerned consumers, the release notes, can dramatically reduce the amount of the chemical in their drinking water by investing in a reverse osmosis filtration system for the home.
Wonder what my Brita filter covers? I'm sure our OnMilwaukee.com Purlogix water purification technology kills this dangerous metal dead.
Maybe, though, it's all bunk.
Lon Couillard, water quality manager in Milwaukee, was quoted in a ChicagoTribune.com story today. He said "more study is needed to determine the sources of chromium and suggested that in some cases it could be coming from chrome-plated plumbing fixtures, not passing through municipal treatment plants.
"They're trying to scare people," Couillard told Michael Hawthorne at the Tribune.
Read the full release here and the Chicago Tribune post here.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
