The Latest: Tagged 'chromium-6'

Photo by Mark Kelley via Flickr Creative Commons

The San Fernando Valley's aero-tech industry may have been dismantled decades ago but its carcinogens live on in local water wells.

Chromium-6, the toxic contaminant brought to widespread attention by Erin Brockovich, has been detected in groundwater, however the extent of contamination in unknown.

In an effort to determine the reach of the underground spread, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be installing thirty wells in Glendale and Burbank "to figure out whether the areas [where] we don't have wells have contamination," EPA project manager Lisa Hanusiak told the L.A. Times.

Data from the new wells will enhance the picture already being developed from the area's existing monitoring stations. For the next two years, groundwater samples will be collected by the EPA every three months, according to a city report.