On Monday December 20th, 2010 the Environmental Working Group released a report indicating that hexavalent chromium has leached into the ground waters, from which millions of Americans regularly use for drinking, cooking and bathing. This water pollutant, hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6, is an odorless and tasteless chemical that was made famous in the film "Erin Brockovich".

In this most recent study by the Environmental Working Group, drinking water samples were taken from 35 U.S. cities, and a shocking 31 cities were found to have high levels of hexavalent chromium water contamination. The highest concentrations of chromium-6 were found in Norman, OK, Honolulu HI, and Riverside, CA.  There are different forms of this element, but Chromium-6 itself is classified as a carcinogen. Yet in the face of mounting evidence of the contaminant's toxic effects, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not set a legal limit for chromium-6 in tap water and does not require water utilities to test for it. In 1998, the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Program classified hexavalent chromium as a known human carcinogen via inhalation, but they did not have the science at that time to be able to classify it as to its potential for human carcinogenicity via ingestion. Currently this is under review, and the EPA is looking to see if any changes need to be made to its current legal limits.