Facts

The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group sued the California Dept. of Public Health for failing to protect millions of Californians from hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing chemical.

Water quality testing conducted between 2000 and 2011 revealed that about one-third of the more than 7,000 drinking water sources sampled were contaminated with the dangerous carcinogen at levels that exceeded safety limits.

In 2011, the California State Legislature mandated the agency to adopt a standard for hexavalent chromium in drinking water by Jan. 1, 2004. Plaintiff claimed the agency had not done so more than nine years past its deadline.

Result

The court required the state to establish the drinking water standard to protect citizens from the dangerous carcinogen, and ordered the state to propose the standard by August 2013.