Senators, EPA Plot Strategy After Water Report

Members of Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency are working together after a new research report showed Washington, D.C. and other cities have elevated levels of the probable carcinogen chromium-6 in their public drinking water. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson met with a bipartisan group of senators to coordinate action Tuesday, The Hill reports.

The group included Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.; Mark Kirk, R-Ill.; Ben Nelson, D-Neb.; and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. The report was published by the Environmental Working Group, a non-governmental organization in Washington.

“Administrator Jackson assured us that the EPA is taking the report seriously and is in the process of evaluating at what level chromium-6 should be regulated,” Durbin says in a statement. 

“The results of the Environmental Working Group’s study should not cause undue panic, but encourage communities to engage in their own testing.”