Contamination of soils, surface water and groundwater environments with toxic elements by the addition of industrial effluents is a global environmental and public health concern. A great risk is posed to our natural water resources from a widespread leather tanning industry, owing to the heavy use of chromium (Cr) salts during the tanning process. Two major forms of chromium (Cr), trivalent Cr (Cr(III)) and hexavalent Cr (Cr(VI)), are predominantly found in tannery industry wastewater. Chromium(VI) is the most toxic form of Cr which does not have any essential metabolic functions in the living organisms. We aimed to determine the total Cr and its species in wastewater samples collected from several tanneries in district Kasur of Punjab, Pakistan. All the tannery wastewater samples (n = 86) showed elevated total Cr concentration (range: 1-185 mg L−1; mean: 16 mg L−1; SD: ± 34 mg L−1). The concentration of Cr(VI) and Cr(III) ranged from BDL to 17 mg L−1 and BDL to 174 mg L−1, respectively. The Cr(VI) concentration in most of the wastewater samples exceeded the National Environmental Quality Standard (NEQS; 0.25 mg L−1) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA; 0.1 mg L−1) safe limits in wastewater. The physicochemical parameters of the tannery wastewater (pH, alkalinity, acidity, TDS, Cl, sulfate) were found to be higher than their safe limits for wastewater. Our data indicate that the wastewater of these tanneries is a potential threat to the surface water, soil and groundwater, and hence some suitable remediation strategies are needed to treat Cr-contaminated tannery wastewater, such as employing a constructed wetland technology.