California’s New Water Standards Affect Coachella Valley

California’s Water Resources Control Board unanimously approved the nation’s first drinking water standard for Hexavalent Chromium otherwise known as Chrome Six.

This chemical is found naturally in some California groundwater.

The new standard requires less than ten parts per billion of the chemical, which according to Coachella City Councilmember, Frank Figueroa, would cost the city $90 million to install.

With this cost, comes a spike in monthly bills for residents. Raising an average monthly bill from about eight to twenty dollars, now to $135 a month.

For cities like Coachella, this huge price tag could be an issue.

Ten years ago, when the first maximum contaminant level for Hexavalent Chromium was passed, Coachella spent $400,000 on a study on what installing a treatment to limit the chemical in the water would cost.

Back then, it was estimated to cost $36.2 million, but with a spike in prices, ten years later, it’s now set to cost $90 million. 

“We live in the desert and it gets 120 degrees and you can’t be in this mix of, you know, people can’t drink water. So it’s a very expensive implementation, and so that’s what we’re looking at, you know, how do you implement it? and what are the different options?” Dr. Figueroa adds. 

The city recently received a $500,000 allocation from the state, which they’re hoping to use to run a pilot study on different and more cost effective options they could implement to lower the Chrome Six levels in their waters.

With this new standard put into effect, the city will only have three years to comply with these new levels, but they’re asking for more time, “We don’t think we’ll get to that three years. That’s why yesterday when I talked, I asked, you know, we need to get to that five years, right? Give us that five years because that should be plenty of time for us to meet, get the implementation and make sure that you know, we’re treating the water to the levels that have been requested by the state water resource board.” Figueroa says.

We reached out to some agencies that provide water to residents, including IID and the Desert Water Agency and they stated that they are not directly affected by this new standard. 

As far as the Coachella Valley Water District, they left us a statement reading in part, “The state’s new Chromium-6 standard would impact some domestic water wells in CVWD’s system. In January, CVWD began a comprehensive study to evaluate all the best available technologies for treating drinking water to ensure compliance.” 

Now CVWD, similarly to the City of Coachella adds that some of the concerns that the district has with this new standard includes the added treatment costs and the short compliance period to meet the new MCL levels for Hexavalent Chromium.