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GLENDALE — As much as $4 million will be spent for a study to determine if chromium 6 causes cancer when it is ingested in drinking water, federal officials announced Friday. 

Chromium 6 is a proven carcinogen when inhaled, but there is debate within the scientific community about whether it causes cancer when ingested. National Toxicology Program officials agreed to do the study after receiving a request from Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank. 

“We are dealing with imprecise information on a matter of great public concern,” Schiff said. 

Officials announced the chromium 6 study at a Superfund treatment plant in Glendale that removes industrial solvents from groundwater in the east San Fernando Valley but not heavy metals like chromium 6.  

Schiff is also lobbying for a pilot treatment plant to be built to remove chromium 6 from the water. He has asked the federal government for $3 million to augment $6 million from the city of Glendale for the facility.  

Chromium 6 pollution is a major problem in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere in the state because of its use in aerospace and other industrial processes, Schiff said. 

Concerned about possible health problems, Glendale has been dumping millions of gallons of chromium 6-tainted drinking water into the Los Angeles River, which carries it to the ocean. 

Although the water meets the current state standard of 50 parts per billion of total chromium, a state agency has proposed much tougher limits.  

In addition, Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation last year that gives the state Department of Health Services until January 2002 to determine the threat of chromium 6 throughout the state and to issue a report to the governor and Legislature. 

The debate over the effects of chromium 6 acquired a high profile thanks in part to t“Erin Brockovich,” about a 1996 case in which residents of the San Bernardino County town of Hinkley won a $333 million settlement from Pacific Gas & Electric.