A bill introduced in the House of Representatives at the end of March would require EPA to propose a national drinking water standard for chromium-6 within six months, and finalize a standard within one year. But the bill, sponsored by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is not expected to receive a vote in the Republican-controlled House.
H.R. 4266, the “Protecting Pregnant Women and Children from Hexavalent Chromium Act,” mirrors a Senate bill of the same title introduced last year as S. 79 by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). But the Senate version has languished in committee for more than a year, and no action is anticipated on the new House bill, either. AMWA detailed its concerns with the Senate bill in congressional testimony in February of 2011, arguing that legislating drinking water regulations on a contaminant-by-contaminant basis would circumvent the intent of the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Both H.R. 4266 and S. 79 would direct EPA to publish a health advisory for chromium-6 within ninety days of the bill’s enactment “that is fully protective, with an adequate margin of safety, of the health of vulnerable individuals (including pregnant women, infants, and children).” Then the agency would be required to propose and finalize, within six months and one year, respectively, a national drinking water standard for chromium-6 which “is protective, with an adequate margin of safety” of those same vulnerable individuals.
Rep. Schiff introduced H.R. 4266 just weeks after he wrote a letter urging EPA to speed up its toxicology assessment of chromium-6. This followed the agency’s decision to delay its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of chromium-6 while it waits on the results of a multimillion-dollar peer-reviewed study.