Special Report: Tainted Water – California’s new Chromium rule and its impact on the Coachella Valley

COACHELLA, Calif. (KESQ) Water agencies across the Coachella Valley are facing a costly mandate as California enforces the nation's first drinking water limit on hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium-6, a chemical linked to cancer that occurs naturally in the region’s groundwater.

The new state standard, which takes effect Oct. 1, 2024, limits chromium-6 to 10 parts per billion. That’s far stricter than the federal government, which only regulates total chromium at 100 ppb. 

California’s ultimate health goal is even lower: 0.02 ppb.

In response, Coachella Valley Water District sent out state-required notices in November warning customers in its Cove Community (ID-8) system that recent water samples showed levels between 11 and 12 ppb, exceeding the new limit

Officials stress the water remains safe to drink under current rules.

“This isn’t an emergency,” CVWD communications manager Lorraine Garcia said. “It’s still the same water. It’s not that we suddenly had a contamination from something. This is a naturally occurring thing here”

Garcia said CVWD has submitted a compliance plan to the state but cannot begin construction until it’s approved. Proposed solutions include taking wells offline, drilling replacements, and building treatment facilities. The estimated cost: $350 million.

“This particular regulation that California has adopted will double customers’ rates,” Garcia said

CVWD serves a wide area, including Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, and parts of Indio and Thousand Palms. Chromium-6 is present throughout the valley, due to local geology.

“There is actually naturally occurring chromium all over our state in the rocks,” said UC Riverside environmental scientist Samantha Ying. “When we drink it at that level, like ten parts per billion or a little higher, and we drink it every day, it could become a problem including causing different types of cancers”

Ying noted that while the risk isn’t immediate, long-term exposure matters. “We don’t need any chromium-6 in our bodies,” she said. “Lower is always better.”

In the city of Coachella, which operates its own water system, leaders have requested up to $84 million in state funding to build a treatment plant. 

Inside city council chambers last week, city leaders were told the same bottom line

A new treatment facility may be needed. They’ve apply for funding and rates could double for customers.

City documents show the city requested up to $84 million in state funding, with estimates putting the project closer to 50 million. Some funding may come as grants, The rest would be loans repaid by ratepayers.

“We're hoping to get grants. But what we can't get in grants we're going to have to borrow.”said interim city manager Bill Pattison during last week’s meeting.

Residents are already uneasy about the price tag.

“They’ve been giving it to us for years and years and years, and I don’t think it’s done anything to make anything any better,” said Frank Van Patten, a La Quinta Cove homeowner. “It shouldn’t cost billions of dollars”

The controversy over chromium-6 gained national attention after the movie “Erin Brockovich” spotlighted toxic industrial pollution in Hinkley, California. But that case involved a utility’s chemical leak. Here in the valley, the chromium is natural, it leaches from local rock formations into groundwater

Still, not everyone agrees on how far the state should go or who should foot the bill.

Assemblymember Jeff Gonzalez, Vice Chair of the Assembly’s Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, supports the regulation. “When it comes to public health and safety, 100%,” Gonzalez said. 

Meanwhile, more than 120 water agencies and agricultural groups across the state have filed a lawsuit challenging the mandate, calling it an unfunded and unreasonable burden on local water systems.

That lawsuit is currently pending. Until it’s resolved, agencies must move forward with compliance and residents may soon see those costs reflected in their water bills.