Levels Of Carcinogen In Norman Drinking Water Among Highest In Country

Natalie Tantanos is worried about her 6-year-old daughter drinking Norman tap water now that she knows about the high levels of the so-called "Erin Brockovich" carcinogen in it.  

"I have a friend and her mom got cancer. She was part of that settlement. And, um, it's scary," Tantanos said.

A new report from the Environmental Working Group, which is an activist research organization, shows chromium-6 has contaminated water supplies for more than 200 million Americans in all 50 states.  

Some of the highest rates in the country are right here in Norman at 39.3 parts per billion. To put that in context; the City of Houston has 0.747 parts per billion and New York City is at 0.041 parts per billion.  

"(The) EPA has been looking at chromium since 1992 and they set the allowable limit at a hundred parts per billion.  And we're way below that limit and we always have been," said Norman Director of Utilities Kenneth Komiske.

One part per billion is about one drop of water out of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Even though Norman’s levels of chromium are within the federally mandated standards, they’re studying ways to lower the number.  

"It’s not that we think that there's an alarm that we have to do something,” Komiske said. “We're doing this proactively to see if there's a cheaper and better way if regulations change that we can reduce the chromium."

That doesn’t make Tantanos feel any better.  She said she just doesn’t feel safe letting her daughter drink water from the tap.

"It's wrong and I’m sure that so many people don't even know about it, and that's scary too," she said.