One part-per-billion, or ppb, is 1 out of 1,000,000,000. In terms of drinking water, ppb is considered by weight. One ppb of chromium in a water sample means that out of the total weight of the sample, 0.00000001% of it is chromium and 99.9999999% is everything else. Here are some analogies to put 1 ppb in perspective3: