Hinkley groundwater contamination

Last updated
Satellite image of Hinkley, Barstow and Harper Lake, California S2B MSIL1C 20180325 T11SMU Hinkley CA RGB EPSG32610 WGS84.tif
Satellite image of Hinkley, Barstow and Harper Lake, California

From 1952 to 1966, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) dumped about 370 million gallons (1,400 million litres) of chromium-tainted wastewater into unlined wastewater spreading ponds around the town of Hinkley, California, located in the Mojave Desert about 120 miles north-northeast of Los Angeles. [1] [2]

Contents

PG&E used chromium 6, or hexavalent chromium (a cheap and efficient rust suppressor), in its compressor station for natural-gas transmission pipelines. [1] [3] Hexavalent-chromium compounds are genotoxic carcinogens.

In 1993, legal clerk Erin Brockovich began an investigation into the health impacts of the contamination. A class-action lawsuit about the contamination was settled in 1996 on July 2nd for $333 million (around $612 million in 2023). In 2008, PG&E settled the last of the cases involved with the Hinkley claims. Since then, the town's population has dwindled to the point that in 2016 The New York Times described Hinkley as having slowly become a ghost town. [4] [5]

History

During the early 1950s, Pacific Gas & Electric built its first two compressor stations in Topock, Arizona, and Hinkley at the southern end of what became its trans-California natural-gas transmission system: a network of eight compressor stations linked with 40,000 miles (64,000 km) of distribution pipeline and 6,000 miles (9,700 km) of transport pipeline. From Bakersfield to the Oregon border, the network served 4.2 million customers. [6] At the Topock and Hinkley compressor stations, a hexavalent chromium additive was used as a rust inhibitor in cooling towers. [6] The water was then disposed adjacent to the compressor stations. [6] Although the dumping took place from 1952 to 1966 (when Hinkley was a remote desert community with one school and a general store), [1] PG&E did not inform the local water board about the contamination until December 7, 1987. [7]

Residents of Hinkley filed a class action against PG&E, Anderson, et al. v. Pacific Gas and Electric (Superior Ct. for County of San Bernardino, Barstow Division, file BCV 00300). [1] LeRoy A. Simmons was the judge. In 1993, Erin Brockovich (a legal clerk for lawyer Edward L. Masry) investigated an apparent cluster of illnesses in the community which were linked to hexavalent chromium. [8] The case was referred to arbitration, with maximum damages of $400 million for more than 600 people. After arbitration for the first 40 people resulted in about $120 million, PG&E reassessed its position and decided to end arbitration and settle the case. It was settled in 1996 for $333 million, the largest settlement of a class action lawsuit in U.S. history at the time. [9] [3] [10]

Protest sign outside Hinkley Detail Hinkley protest sign.jpg
Protest sign outside Hinkley

During negotiations, the presiding judges told PG&E's lawyers that a 1987 study by Chinese scientist Jian Dong Zhang reporting a strong link between chromium 6 pollution and cancer in humans would be "influential" in their decision. [11] [12] In 1997, an article was published in which Zhang retracted his 1987 research. [13] ChemRisk, a firm known to be working with PG&E since 1995, updated his analysis and published it in the April 1997 Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM, the official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine) as a retraction of Zhang's 1987 paper. It was published under Zhang's name (then a retired Chinese government health officer, and despite his written objection) and that of a second Chinese scientist, Shu Kun Li. [13] Peter Waldman, reporter for The Wall Street Journal , wrote that Zhang's son was "outraged" at "the idea that his father would willingly have invalidated his earlier award-winning work." [14] [15] According to the Center for Public Integrity, "In contrast to the earlier article, the new one concluded that chromium wasn't the likely culprit. The revised study—which did not reveal the involvement of PG&E or its scientists—helped persuade California health officials to delay new drinking water standards for chromium." [7]

In March 2001, the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) asked the University of California, Berkeley to name a panel of experts to form the Chromate Toxicity Review Committee. The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), established in 1991 with the creation of CalEPA, had been located across from UC Berkeley and had maintained academic ties with the school. [16] A meeting was held on July 25, 2001, to obtain "public input on the review of scientific questions regarding the potential of chromium 6+ to cause cancer when ingested." [17] The panel was selected by Jerold A. Last, with Dennis Paustenbach as vice-president, and included Mark Schrenker, Silvio De Flora and John Froines. [18] Paustenbach, De Flora and Froines resigned from the committee and were replaced. [19] [20]

On August 31, 2001, the Chromate Toxicity Review Committee (which then included Russell Flegal, Jerold Last, Ernest E. McConnell of ToxPath,[ clarification needed ] Marc Schenker and Hanspeter Witschi) submitted its report, entitled "Scientific Review of Toxicological and Human Health Issues Related to the Development of a Public Health Goal for Chromium(VI)". [19] [21] The committee recommended that reports of chromium concentrations (particularly in southern California) were alarmist and "spuriously high", and further evaluation should be handled by academics in laboratory settings—not by regulators. [19] : 29  The report cited the 1987 Zhang article and its retracted 1997 version. [11] [12] [13] Citing the 2001 Chromate Toxicity Review Committee review [19] in November of that year, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment withdrew its 1999 public-health goal for total chromium in drinking water of 2.5 parts per billion. [14] [20]

In 2001, the law firm of Engstron, Lipscomb and Lack filed a follow-up lawsuit on behalf of 900 people alleging chromium contamination in Hinkley and Kettleman, California. [20] Two years later, Senator Deborah Ortiz (who represented the Sacramento area and chaired the Senate Health and Human Services Committee) called a Senate hearing about "Possible Interference in the Scientific Review of Chromium VI Toxicity". [20] At the hearing, Gary Praglin, a lawyer with Engstron, Lipscomb and Lack in Los Angeles, testified about how the flawed 2001 report by the Chromate Toxicity Review Committee adversely affected the firm's court case against PG&E: [19]

After the blue-ribbon panel report came out, PG&E came into court, and they told the judge that everything had changed. They were waving the blue-ribbon report—the blue-ribbon panel report—like a flag. They said to the judge, the State of California has spoken. It has said that chromium VI does not cause cancer by ingestion, and they wanted to amend their paperwork, their motions, their declarations, and move to dismiss our case. And they got that permission to do that. They amended all their paperwork, and we were given permission to take discovery—to take depositions, issue subpoenas—and we have obtained thousands of pages of documents in connection with the blue-ribbon panel process.

Since the Hinkley groundwater contamination lawsuit, a group of California-based scientists with organizations such as the Desert Sierra Cancer Surveillance Program (DSCSP) and ChemRisk have argued against the claim that chromium 6 is genotoxic, downplaying the number of cancer cases and challenging a "cancer cluster in the Hinkley area". [2] [22] [23] [24] [25]

According to the lawsuit, PG&E was also required to discontinue its use of chromium 6 and clean up the contaminated groundwater. [26] By 2008 the chromium plume was spreading, however, and it attracted media attention by 2011. [26] In November 2010, PG&E began offering to purchase threatened houses and property in Hinkley and to provide bottled water. [26] By 2013, the plume was over six miles long, two miles wide, and slowly growing. [9]

In 2006, PG&E agreed to pay $295 million to settle cases involving another 1,100 people statewide for hexavalent chromium-related claims. Two years later, it settled the last of the Hinkley claims for $20 million. [27] That year, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) responded to research by the National Toxicology Program on the development of cancerous tumors in mice and rats who had consumed heavy doses of chromium 6. [28]

California became the first state to acknowledge a link between ingested hexavalent chromium and cancer in July 2014, establishing a maximum contaminant level (MCL) for hexavalent chromium of 10 parts per billion (ppb). [29] [30] Hexavalent chromium is measured in μg/L (micrograms per liter). The EPA does not have an MCL for hexavalent chromium in drinking water, but the agency has an MCL of 100 parts per billion for all forms of chromium. [31]

Groundwater pollution

PG&E operates a compressor station in Hinkley for its natural-gas transmission pipelines. The gas must be re-compressed about every 350 miles (560 km), and the station uses cooling towers to cool the gas after compression.

Between 1952 and 1966, the water in the cooling towers contained hexavalent chromium—now recognized as a carcinogen [30] —to prevent rust in the machinery. The water was stored between uses in unlined ponds, which allowed it to percolate into the groundwater. This led to groundwater pollution, affecting soil and contaminating water wells near the compressor station with a plume originally about 2 miles (3.2 km) long and nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) wide. [32] By 2013, the plume was 6 miles (9.7 km) long and nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) wide. [9]

Average hexavalent chromium levels in Hinkley were recorded as 1.19 parts-per-billion (ppb), with an estimated peak of 20 ppb. Based on the PG&E Background Study, the PG&E Topock Compressor Station averaged 7.8 ppb and peaked at 31.8 ppb. [33] The proposed California health goal for hexavalent chromium was 0.02 ppb in 2011. [34] In 1991, when the EPA raised the federal MCL for total chromium to 100 ppb, California remained at 50 ppb. [33] According to CalEPA in 2015, "At the time Total Chromium MCLs were established, ingested Hexavalent Chromium associated with consumption of drinking water was not considered to pose a cancer risk, as is now the case." [30]

Plume

Samples taken in August 2010 showed that the plume of contaminated water had begun to migrate to the lower aquifer. [35] [36] In September 2013, CalEPA reported that the plume had expanded to 6 miles (9.7 km) long and 4 miles (6.4 km) wide. [37] In 2015, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Lahontan Region served PG&E with an order to clean up the effects of the chromium discharge. At the time of the report, the plume was "8 miles (13 km) in length and approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) in width, throughout the Hinkley Valley and into Harper Dry Lake Valley." [38] : 2 

Cleanup

By 2013, PG&E had spent over $750 million on remediation. Sheryl Bilbery, in charge of PG&E remediation efforts, explained why remediation was taking a long time. "It's a very complex project. We are highly regulated. There are a lot of interested parties. The other thing is it is very important that we get it right." [39]

For their 2013 series Science for Sale, PBS NewsHour journalist Miles O'Brien interviewed PG&E director of chromium remediation Kevin Sullivan. According to Sullivan, PG&E cleaned up 54 acres (22 ha); however, it would take another 40 years before they were done. PG&E built a concrete barrier about a half-mile long to contain the plume, pumped ethanol into the ground to convert chromium 6 to chromium 3, and planted acres of alfalfa. [39] O'Brien interviewed Erin Brockovich, who was surprised that PG&E had not completed the cleanup it promised over a decade earlier. [39] In correspondence with Sullivan, the Water Board noted that by 2014 "chromium from PG&E's historical releases at the Hinkley Compressor Station has migrated from the upper aquifer to the lower aquifer causing hexavalent chromium concentrations in the lower aquifer to exceed drinking water standards." [40] Cleanup documentation about Hinkley is maintained on the CalEPA webpage. [37]

Debates

A 2007 toxicity report for the National Toxicology Program provided evidence that high doses of chromium 6 caused cancers of the gastrointestinal tract in rats and mice at levels higher than 5 mg/L of water, (5 ppm, or 5,000 ppb). [41] [42]

Average hexavalent chromium levels in Hinkley were recorded at 1.19 ppb, with an estimated peak of 20 ppb. The PG&E Topock Compressor Station averaged 7.8 ppb, peaking at 31.8 ppb (based on the PG&E Background Study). [33] In 2013, PG&E's Sheryl Bilbery told a PBS journalist: "There's a lot of scientists that are still debating that question [hexavalent chromium toxicity]. I think that's why the process has taken so long, from what I have read, both at EPA and at the state level. So, I think they're still trying to figure out exactly what is the right answer there." [39] In July 2014, CalEPA established a maximum chromium-6 MCL of 10 ppb as a result of new research which linked ingestion of hexavalent chromium with cancer. [30]

CalEPA

California was the first state to put into effect an MCL for hexavalent chromium (chromium 6) in drinking water in July 2014, setting a limit of 10 ppb. A 2015 United States Geological Survey (USGS) report, based on the EPA's 2010 review of the health effects of chromium 6 in drinking water, re-examined related federal regulations. [43] : 9  Following California's 2014 limit, Illinois began research in collaboration with the USGS which was published in 2015. [43] : 9  According to the USGS report, the EPA proposed in 2010 to "classify Cr(VI) as likely to cause cancer in humans when ingested over a lifetime." [43] : 2  Concentrations of chromium 6 in water are given in micrograms and milligrams per liter (µg/L and mg/L), with 50 µg/L equal to 50 ppb and 50 mg/L equal to 50 ppm. [43] : 8 

John Morgan

Since January 1, 1988, all cancers in California have been reported to California Cancer Registry (CCR) regional registries. Hinkley, in San Bernardino County, is covered by the Desert Sierra Cancer Surveillance Program (DSCSP) with the California Department of Public Health. [44] Epidemiologist John Morgan began working with the DSCSP in 1995. [45]

Morgan has published over 100 abstracts, presentations and reports, some of which have been peer-reviewed. Many of his PowerPoint presentations and online posts attempt to debunk allegations that chromium pollution caused the cancer cluster in the Hinkley area and downplay the number of cancer cases there. [2] [22] In his often-cited 2010 California Cancer Registry study, Morgan wrote that cancer rates in Hinkley "remained unremarkable from 1988 to 2008". [22] [46] In a study co-authored with M. E. Reeves, he wrote that "the 196 cases of cancer reported during the most recent survey of 1996 through 2008 were less than what he would expect based on demographics and the regional rate of cancer." [22]

Morgan used cartoon characters in his 2012 PowerPoint presentation at the Proceedings of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) Conference, saying: "Inhaled Cr[VI] powder is accepted as a carcinogen, while the role of aqueous Cr[VI] as a human carcinogen has been challenged." [47] He wrote a letter to The Connection to publicize a poster of his. [48] In 2013, the Center for Public Integrity found weaknesses in Morgan's 2010 analysis which challenge the validity of his findings: "In his first study, he dismisses what others see as a genuine cancer cluster in Hinkley. In his latest analysis, he excludes people who were exposed to the worst contamination." [2]

Dennis Paustenbach

Dennis Paustenbach has been an expert witness and consultant for a number of companies facing lawsuits over products, environmental practices or product safety. [49] Paustenbach was the founder and director of ChemRisk, and Brent Kerger was one of his senior scientists. [14] Their clients included PG&E and BP. [50]

Paustenbach was at the center of a publishing scandal [12] involving the research of Chinese scientist Jian Dong Zhang, who published a paper in 1987 reporting an association between chromium pollution of drinking water and higher rates of stomach cancer in residents of three villages in Liaoning Province (in rural northeastern China) who lived near a chromium-ore smelter and drank tainted water for years. [11]

According to Allan Hirsch, CalEPA's 2008 review of Zhang's 1987 paper agreed with his findings that the rates of stomach cancer in the three villages were significantly higher than those in the province. [39] PG&E hired ChemRisk, a for-profit scientific consulting firm. [49] [51]

According to the Center for Public Integrity, "[Zhang's] revised [1997] study—which did not reveal the involvement of PG&E or its scientists—helped persuade California health officials to delay new drinking water standards for chromium." [7] The EPA cited the article when it allowed the continued use of chromium in a wood preservative, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry discounted chromium 6 as an oral carcinogen because of the revised study. [13]

In 2006, the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine conducted a six-month internal review of the 1997 retraction. Although Zhang had died by the time the JOEM made its investigation, his co-author agreed that the revised paper should be retracted. [15] The retraction, written by JOEM editor Paul Brandt-Rauf, said:

It has been brought to our attention that an article published in JOEM in the April 1997 issue by Zhang and Li failed to meet the journal's published editorial policy in effect at that time ... Specifically, financial and intellectual input to the paper by outside parties was not disclosed.

According to a 2005 article by Peter Waldman in The Wall Street Journal , ChemRisk had authored the article as consultants for PG&E (who were "being sued for alleged chromium pollution"). [15] In addition to ChemRisk, Paustenbach later worked with Exponent; [14] : 172  he and ChemRisk have "drawn the scrutiny of investigative journalists." [49]

Steven Patierno

In September 2010, EPA scientists concluded that "even a small amount of a chemical compound commonly found in tap water may cause cancer." [23] Steven Patierno, who had been an expert defense witness in seven chromium-6 lawsuits, was named by the EPA to the peer-review panel critiquing the agency's chromium-6 findings in a potential conflict of interest. [24] A team of investigative journalists from the Center for Public Integrity made the disclosure in a series entitled Toxic Clout. [23]

Patierno, an expert witness for PG&E, was deputy director of the Duke Cancer Institute and a former professor of pharmacology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences who had conducted a number of studies on chromium and said that "drinking low doses of chromium (VI) does not cause cancer." [23] [24] [25] Patierno has co-authored papers with ChemRisk's Paustenbach, another expert witness for PG&E. In 1996, Paustenbach and Patierno co-authored an article saying that chromium 6 is not genotoxic. [52]

Film

The contamination and lawsuit became the subject of Erin Brockovich , a 2000 biographical film which starred Julia Roberts as Brockovich. [53] The film was a critical success, with Roberts winning a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama [54] and an Academy Award for Best Actress. [55] [56] Brockovich, who said that the film was about 98 percent accurate, made a cameo appearance. [57] [58]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erin Brockovich</span> American environmental activist

Erin Brockovich is an American paralegal, consumer advocate, and environmental activist who was instrumental in building a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) involving groundwater contamination in Hinkley, California for attorney Ed Masry in 1993. Their successful lawsuit was the subject of the Oscar-winning film, Erin Brockovich (2000), starring Julia Roberts as Brockovich and Albert Finney as Masry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trichloroethylene</span> C2HCl3, widely used industrial solvent

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a halocarbon with the formula C2HCl3, commonly used as an industrial degreasing solvent. It is a clear, colourless, non-flammable, volatile liquid with a chloroform-like pleasant mild smell and sweet taste. Its IUPAC name is trichloroethene. Trichloroethylene has been sold under a variety of trade names. Industrial abbreviations include TCE, trichlor, Trike, Tricky and tri. Under the trade names Trimar and Trilene, it was used as a volatile anesthetic and as an inhaled obstetrical analgesic. It should not be confused with the similar 1,1,1-trichloroethane, which is commonly known as chlorothene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindane</span> Organochlorine chemical and an isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane

Lindane, also known as gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane (γ-HCH), gammaxene, Gammallin and benzene hexachloride (BHC), is an organochlorine chemical and an isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane that has been used both as an agricultural insecticide and as a pharmaceutical treatment for lice and scabies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chromate and dichromate</span> Chromium(VI) anions

Chromate salts contain the chromate anion, CrO2−
4. Dichromate salts contain the dichromate anion, Cr
2O2−
7. They are oxyanions of chromium in the +6 oxidation state and are moderately strong oxidizing agents. In an aqueous solution, chromate and dichromate ions can be interconvertible.

<i>Erin Brockovich</i> (film) 2000 film by Steven Soderbergh

Erin Brockovich is a 2000 American biographical legal drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Susannah Grant. The film is a dramatization of the true story of Erin Brockovich, portrayed by Julia Roberts, who initiated a legal case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company over its culpability for the Hinkley groundwater contamination incident. The film was a box-office and critical success.

Hinkley is an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert, in San Bernardino County, California, United States, 14 miles (23 km) northwest of Barstow, 59 miles (95 km) east of Mojave, 47 miles (76 km) north of Victorville and about a 120 mile (193 km) drive northeast of Los Angeles. Just north of California State Route 58, the residents have faced concerns over hexavalent chromium in their well water from the world's largest plume of this cancer-causing chemical.

Edward Louis Masry was an American lawyer, a partner in the law firm of Masry & Vititoe and also a mayor and city councilman for the City of Thousand Oaks, California. With the help of his legal assistant Erin Brockovich, Masry built a case against the Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) of California in 1993. Their successful lawsuit was the subject of the Oscar-winning film, Erin Brockovich (2000), starring Julia Roberts as Brockovich and Albert Finney as Masry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hexavalent chromium</span> Chromium in the +6 oxidation state

Hexavalent chromium (chromium(VI), Cr(VI), chromium 6) is chromium in any chemical compound that contains the element in the +6 oxidation state (thus hexavalent). The hexavalent form rarely occurs naturally.

A toxic tort claim is a specific type of personal injury lawsuit in which the plaintiff claims that exposure to a chemical or dangerous substance caused the plaintiff's injury or disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arsenic contamination of groundwater</span> Form of water pollution

Arsenic contamination of groundwater is a form of groundwater pollution which is often due to naturally occurring high concentrations of arsenic in deeper levels of groundwater. It is a high-profile problem due to the use of deep tube wells for water supply in the Ganges Delta, causing serious arsenic poisoning to large numbers of people. A 2007 study found that over 137 million people in more than 70 countries are probably affected by arsenic poisoning of drinking water. The problem became a serious health concern after mass poisoning of water in Bangladesh. Arsenic contamination of ground water is found in many countries throughout the world, including the US.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calcium chromate</span> Chemical compound

Calcium chromate is an inorganic compound with the formula CaCrO4, i.e. the chromate salt of calcium. It is a bright yellow solid which is normally found in the dihydrate form CaCrO4·2H2O. A very rare anhydrous mineral form exists in nature, which is known as chromatite.

Drinking water quality in the United States is generally safe. In 2016, over 90 percent of the nation's community water systems were in compliance with all published U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. Over 286 million Americans get their tap water from a community water system. Eight percent of the community water systems—large municipal water systems—provide water to 82 percent of the US population. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires the US EPA to set standards for drinking water quality in public water systems. Enforcement of the standards is mostly carried out by state health agencies. States may set standards that are more stringent than the federal standards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enilconazole</span> Chemical compound

Enilconazole is a fungicide widely used in agriculture, particularly in the growing of citrus fruits. Trade names include Freshgard, Fungaflor, and Nuzone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment</span> American specialized government agency

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, commonly referred to as OEHHA, is a specialized department within the cabinet-level California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) with responsibility for evaluating health risks from environmental chemical contaminants.

Chromium toxicity refers to any poisonous toxic effect in an organism or cell that results from exposure to specific forms of chromium—especially hexavalent chromium. Hexavalent chromium and its compounds are toxic when inhaled or ingested. Trivalent chromium is a trace mineral that is essential to human nutrition. There is a hypothetical risk of genotoxicity in humans if large amounts of trivalent chromium were somehow able to enter living cells, but normal metabolism and cell function prevent this.

Dennis J. Paustenbach PhD, CIH, DABT, is an American scientist, businessman, researcher, and author. Dennis is currently President of Paustenbach and Associates, which is a consulting firm who uses risk assessment techniques to characterize occupational and environmental health hazards. He is the founder and former president of ChemRisk, a consulting firm specializing in the use of toxicology and risk assessment to characterize the hazards of chemicals in soil, air, water, food, sediments and consumer products. He was, for about 4 years, a Group Vice-President of Exponent.

ChemRisk is a Delaware Limited Liability Company, a for-profit scientific consulting firm headquartered in San Francisco, California that is part of Cardno ChemRisk. ChemRisk founder and former president, Dennis Paustenbach, "has long been an expert witness and top consultant" to "scores of companies in the chemical, energy and medical products industries" facing lawsuits over products or environmental practices or product safety. Their clients included San Francisco-based utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and BP. ChemRisk uses toxicology and risk assessment to measure the hazards of chemicals in soil, air, water, food, sediments and consumer products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohio River Park</span> Contaminated site in Pennsylvania, U.S.

Ohio River Park is a Superfund Site located in Neville Island, Pennsylvania. Between the 1920s-1970s, the Site was used for municipal waste, pesticide manufacturing, coke sludge disposal, cement manufacturing disposal, and pesticide waste. In 1977, Neville Land Company donated the Site to Allegheny County who started developing the Site as a community park. In 1979, Allegheny County found various hazardous contaminants on the Site. On August 30, 1990, the Site was determined to be a Superfund Site due to VOCs, SVOCs, inorganics, and pesticides being present in the surface soil, subsurface soil, surface water, river sediment, and groundwater. Soil remediation began in February 1998 and ended in September 1999. Today, Ohio River Park has the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center and Coraopolis Bridge on top of it. Additionally, benzene continues to be monitored because it is still present in the Site's groundwater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chromium cycle</span> Biogeochemical cycle

The chromium cycle is the biogeochemical cycle of chromium through the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and lithosphere.

The Garfield Groundwater Contamination site is a Superfund site located in Garfield, New Jersey. The site was formally occupied by E.C Electroplating, an electroplating company that used chromic acid solution in their products. In 1983, a tank at the E.C Electroplating property malfunctioned and spilled chromic acid into the groundwater underneath the property that subsequently spread to the surrounding area. The contamination presented a health risk to Garfield residents in the area due to exposure to hexavalent chromium, a toxic form of chromium. The site was designated a Superfund site in 2011. Cleanup of the site is ongoing as of 2022.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "The 'Erin Brockvich effect': How media shapes toxics policy" (PDF). Environs. 26 (2): 219–32. 2003.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Heath, David (3 June 2013), "Erin Brockovich's Biggest Debunker, Debunked: A closer look finds serious flaws in the research of a scientist trying to disprove an infamous California cancer cluster", Center for Public Integrity via Mother Jones, retrieved 13 April 2013
  3. 1 2 Welkos, Robert W. (12 March 2000), Digging for the Truth: With tensions over accuracy in film running high, 'Erin Brockovich' pays attention to real-life detail , retrieved 13 April 2013
  4. ↑ Lovett, Ian (23 January 2016). "Gas Leak in Los Angeles Has Residents Looking Warily Toward Flint". New York Times. Retrieved 24 January 2016.
  5. ↑ Steinberg, Jim (March 18, 2015). "Hinkley continues to shrink: Desert town set to lose only market, gas station, Post Office".
  6. 1 2 3 "Compressor Stations Environmental Restoration Activities at Compressor Station Properties". Pacific Gas and Electricity. 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 David Heath (March 13, 2013). "How industry scientists stalled action on carcinogen". Center for Public Integrity. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  8. ↑ Baes, Michael (July 29, 2011). "Final Technical Support Document on Public Health Goal for Hexavalent Chromium in Drinking Water". Water. Oakland, California: California Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved April 23, 2012. The health-protective level is based on avoidance of potential carcinogenic effects
  9. 1 2 3 Venturi (September 28, 2013). "PG&E Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over Lingering Hinkley Contamination". Hinkley: San Bernardino County Sentinel. Retrieved April 13, 2016.
  10. ↑ "PG&E to Pay $333 Million In Pollution Suit". San Francisco Chronicle. 1996-07-02. Retrieved 2018-09-18.
  11. 1 2 3 Zhang, Jian Dong; Li, XL (1987), "Chromium pollution of soil and water in Jinzhou", Zhonghua Yu Fang Yi Xue Za Zhi (Chinese Journal of Preventive Medicine), 21 (5): 262–64, PMID   3443034 Zhonghua Yu Fang Yi Xue Za Zhi translated from Chinese
  12. 1 2 3 Waldman, Peter (June 2, 2006), Publication to Retract An Influential Water Study, The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 13 April 2016article ID SB113530126572230084
  13. 1 2 3 4 Jian Dong Zhang; Shu Kun Li (April 1997). "Cancer mortality in a Chinese population exposed to hexavalent chromium in water". Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. 39 (4): 315–31. doi:10.1097/00043764-199704000-00008. PMID   9113601.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Egilman, David (2006). "Corporate Corruption of Science – The Case of Chromium(VI)" (PDF). International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health. Commentary. 12 (2): 169–76. doi:10.1179/oeh.2006.12.2.169. PMID   16722197. S2CID   27619936.
  15. 1 2 3 Waldman, Peter (23 December 2005), Study Tied Pollutant to Cancer; Then Consultants Got Hold of It: 'Clarification' of Chinese Study Absolved Chromium-6; Did Author Really Write It?, The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 13 April 2016article ID SB113530126572230084
  16. ↑ "Cal/EPA History". Archived from the original on 2009-05-20. Retrieved 2009-05-19.
  17. ↑ "Public meeting requesting public input on the review of scientific questions regarding the potential of chromium 6+ to cause cancer when ingested", California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, July 25, 2001, retrieved April 14, 2016
  18. ↑ Schallert, Amanda (15 July 2013). "UCLA professor resigns from air quality panel". University of California, Los Angeles Daily Bruin. Los Angeles. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Flegal, Russell; Last, Jerold; McConnell ToxPath, Ernest E.; Schenker, Marc; Witschi, Hanspeter (August 31, 2001), "Scientific Review of Toxicological and Human Health Issues Related to the Development of a Public Health Goal for Chromium(VI)" (PDF), Chromate Toxicity Review Committee via OEHHA, p. 32, retrieved April 14, 2016
  20. 1 2 3 4 "Possible Interference in the Scientific Review of Chromium VI Toxicity", Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Senate Hearing, Los Angeles, California, February 28, 2003
  21. ↑ Borneff, J; Engelhardt, K; Griem, W; Kunte, H; Reichert, J. (1968). "Experiment with 3,4-benzopyrene and potassium chromate in mice drink". Arch Hyg Bakteriol. Carcinogens in water and soil. 152 (XXII): 45–53. PMID   5707368.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Morgan, John W.; Reeves, M. E., Cancer in Hinkley: What was the real problem?
  23. 1 2 3 4 Heath, David; Greene, Ronnie; Morris, Jim; Hamby, Chris, Morris, Jim; Greene, Ronnie (eds.), "Toxic clout project" (PDF), The Center for Public Integrity
  24. 1 2 3 Heath, David (February 13, 2013), "EPA was unaware of industry ties on cancer review panel", Center for Public Integrity, retrieved April 14, 2016
  25. 1 2 Kristen P. Nickens; Steven R. Patierno; Susan Ceryak (November 5, 2011). "Chromium genotoxicity: a double-edged sword: Cell Death or Survival: The Double-Edged Sword of Environmental Toxicity". Chemico-Biological Interactions. 188 (2): 276–88. doi:10.1016/j.cbi.2010.04.018. PMC   2942955 . PMID   20430016.|PMC=2942955
  26. 1 2 3 "6 Class Action Lawsuits that Changed U.S. History", IVEY Engineering, November 20, 2012, retrieved April 14, 2016
  27. ↑ "PG&E settles last chromium(VI) case". Los Angeles Times. April 8, 2008. pp. B2.
  28. ↑ National Toxicology Program (July 2008). NTP Technical Report on the Toxicology and Carcinogenesis Studies of Sodium Dichromate Dihydrate in F344/N Rats and B6C3F1 Mice (PDF). National Institutes of Health (Report). Drinking Water Studies. p. 201. Retrieved April 14, 2016.
  29. ↑ "State Adoption of a Hexavalent Chromium MCL" (PDF). California Department of Public Health. Retrieved 2014-10-08.
  30. 1 2 3 4 "Fact Sheet: Frequently Asked Questions about Hexavalent Chromium in Drinking Water" (PDF), California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), Sacramento, California, 2015, retrieved April 14, 2016
  31. ↑ "Chromium in Drinking Water". www.epa.gov. 2015-09-22. Retrieved 30 December 2015.
  32. ↑ "PG&E Hinkley Chromium Cleanup", State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) via California Environmental Protection Agency, 2016, retrieved April 14, 2016
  33. 1 2 3 "Frequently asked questions about PG&E background chromium study in Hinkley" (PDF), California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), 2011
  34. ↑ Baes, Michael (July 29, 2011). "Final Technical Support Document on Public Health Goal for Hexavalent Chromium in Drinking Water". Water. Oakland, California: California Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved April 23, 2012. The PHG [Public Health Goal] for hexavalent chromium is established at 0.02 parts per billion (ppb)
  35. ↑ "A decade after "Erin Brockovich," contamination spreads in Hinkley", Victorville Daily Press, November 9, 2010, archived from the original on September 21, 2013, retrieved November 17, 2010{{citation}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  36. ↑ Carrie Kahn (December 13, 2010). "Erin Brockovich II? Activist Returns To Aid Town". NPR.
  37. 1 2 "PG&E Hinkley Chromium Cleanup". California Environmental Protection Agency . Retrieved September 18, 2013.
  38. ↑ "Clean-up and abatement order" (PDF), The California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Lahontan Region (Water Board), no. R6V–2015–0068, San Bernardino County, 2015
  39. 1 2 3 4 5 "Protecting Americans From Danger in the Drinking Water", PBS, Science for Sale, March 13, 2013
  40. ↑ "Conditional acceptance of the plan to install a new extraction well to improve the effectiveness of chromium remediation in groundwater in the lower aquifer of Hinkley" (PDF), California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Lahontan Region (Water Board), December 22, 2014
  41. ↑ Bucher, JR (January 2007), "NTP toxicity studies of sodium dichromate dihydrate (CAS No. 7789-12-0) administered in drinking water to male and female F344/N rats and B6C3F1 mice and male BALB/c and am3-C57BL/6 mice", National Toxicology Program, Toxicity Report Series, no. 72, pp. 1–G4, PMID   17342194
  42. ↑ Zhitkovich, Anatoly (2011). "Chromium in Drinking Water: Sources, Metabolism, and Cancer Risks". Chemical Research in Toxicology. 24 (10): 1617–29. doi:10.1021/tx200251t. PMC   3196244 . PMID   21766833.
  43. 1 2 3 4 Mills, Patrick C.; Cobb, Richard P. (April 28, 2015). "Hexavalent and Total Chromium at Low Reporting Concentrations in Source-Water Aquifers and Surface Waters Used for Public Supply in Illinois, 2013" (PDF). United States Geological Survey (USGS). p. 82. Retrieved April 14, 2016.
  44. ↑ Morgan, John W.; Prendergast, Thomas (September 25, 2000). "Community Cancer Assessment in Hinkley California, 1988–1993: Hinkley cancer-cluster or not". The Desert Sierra Cancer Surveillance Program (DSCSP). Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  45. ↑ "John Morgan", Loma Linda University Health, 2015
  46. ↑ Schwartz, Naoki (December 13, 2010), "Survey shows unremarkable cancer rate in CA town", Boston Globe
  47. ↑ Morgan, John W.; Reeves, M. E. (June 2012). Cancer assessments in Hinkley: What's the real problem?. Proceedings of the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) Conference. Portland, Oregon.
  48. ↑ "Letter to the Editor. Cancer Assessments in Hinkley, California" (PDF), National Cancer Registrars Association , The Connection, August 2012
  49. 1 2 3 "Science Consultant Pushes Back Against Unlikely Opponents". The New York Times. 11 October 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  50. ↑ B.D. Kerger; D.J. Paustenbach; G.E. Corbett; B.L. Finley (November 1996), "Absorption and elimination of trivalent and hexavalent chromium in humans following ingestion of a bolus dose in drinking water", Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 141 (1): 145–58, doi:10.1016/S0041-008X(96)80020-2, PMID   8917687
  51. ↑ Foytlin, Cherri (14 October 2013). "ChemRisk, BP and Purple Strategies: A Tangled Web of Not-So-Independent Science". Huffington Post. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  52. ↑ Mirsalis, Jon C.; Hamilton, Carol M.; O'Loughlin, Kathleen G.; Paustenbach, Dennis J.; Kerger, Brent D.; Patierno, Steven (21 December 1996). "Chromium (VI) at plausible drinking water concentrations is not genotoxic in the in vivo bone marrow micronucleus or liver unscheduled DNA synthesis assays". Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis. 28 (1): 60–63. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1098-2280(1996)28:1<60::AID-EM9>3.0.CO;2-I. PMID   8698048. S2CID   42029257.
  53. ↑ "Erin Brockovich and Hexavalent Chromium". SkillMD. Retrieved 2019-05-26.
  54. ↑ Lyman, Rick (January 22, 2001). "Surprises but No Dominator at the Golden Globes". The New York Times . Retrieved March 4, 2010.
  55. ↑ Lyman, Rick (March 26, 2001). "Oscar Spreads the Wealth, but Gladiator Takes Top Prize; Julia Roberts Is Named Best Actress, And Russell Crowe Is Chosen Best Actor". The New York Times . Retrieved March 4, 2010.
  56. ↑ Lyman, Rick (February 14, 2001). "Gladiator, Crouching Tiger and Soderbergh Are Oscar Nominees". The New York Times . Retrieved March 4, 2010.
  57. ↑ Tunzelmann, Alex von (2013-02-28). "Erin Brockovich: jury out on the details". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-09-27.
  58. ↑ "Erin Brockovich – Did The Movie Really Get It Right?". CNBC. 2008-07-21. Retrieved 2018-09-27.

34°54′11″N117°09′36″W / 34.903°N 117.160°W / 34.903; -117.160

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.