If hexavalent chromium doesn’t ring a bell, think chrome, the stuff that puts the shine on everything from bathroom faucets to motorcycles.

If that still doesn’t help, maybe Erin Brockovich does.  In the 1990’s, the former legal clerk fought to expose hexavalent chromium contamination in drinking water, in the small California town of Hinkley.  The result was a record-breaking settlement and a major motion picture.  Fast forward to April 2009, and the U.S. military is adding a new chapter to the Brockovich book.  The Department of Defense has issued a formal memo requiring an aggressive across-the-board reduction in the military’s use of hexavalent chromium, otherwise known as chromium 6.

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One of the more blatant examples came from Crestwood’s own certified water operator. The Illinois EPA ordered the local well tested for toxins, and in a letter, Frank Scaccia said,

‘This sampling would not apply to our facility,’ because the town’s water came from Lake Michigan and not the well.

Officials repeated this lie numerous times over the years, and now Madigan is going after them. Officials face millions of dollars of fines if found guilty in the civil suit.

Crestwood officials violated the public’s trust and the laws designed to protect public health.

You may remember this story. A former Crestwood resident helped uncover the town’s water sins after two of her three children became ill with cancer.

Turns out, the water had been tainted with a highly toxic dry cleaning chemical. But officials fended off further scrutiny, says Madigan, by lying to authorities no fewer than 120 times over the years.

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