A prominent part of The American Jobs Plan under debate in Congress includes billions of dollars to provide clean drinking water to low-income communities. This would impact communities in the Central Valley of California, an area dominated by agriculture that provides jobs, but also has contaminated the water supply.
California’s Drinking Water is in Crisis
The state struggles to combat droughts and contamination, leaving over a million residents, mostly in and around the Central Valley, without access to safe drinking water
By Dale Shakib
Ohlone Elementary School in Watsonville is picturesque of California’s Central Valley. The modern mission-styled school is surrounded by grass and trees and strawberry fields stretching as far as the eye can see.
The “Ohlone Otters” are nearly all Hispanic, and mostly from low-income families of migrants and farmworkers. Their community is dominated by agriculture, like the strawberry fields across from the school.
But there is more to the beautiful rows of fruits and vegetables that meet the eye here. What’s underground is not pretty at all.
More than a year ago, Ohlone Elementary discovered high levels of chromium-6, a common groundwater contaminant and carcinogen, in the school’s drinking water. The Community Water Center, a non-profit, water rights advocacy group, informed the school of their well water contamination during an agriculture meeting.
Water contamination is a common issue that plagues communities in California. Chemicals such as nitrate, chromium-6, and arsenic commonly infiltrate wells and pipelines. Drinking contaminated water can lead to illness when consumed, used to cook, or bathe. Consistent exposure can cause nervous system or organ damage, have negative reproductive effects, and lead to cancer, according to the EPA.
Droughts have also had devastating effects in areas of California where there is exceptional drought, which is currently about 26% of California, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System. In total, the drought affects over 37,000,000 Californians, according to the NIDIS. The water within the areas of extreme and exceptional drought is inadequate for urban needs and reservoir levels drop to extreme lows.
“We didn’t want to cause a scare”
Melissa Dennis, a third-grade teacher at Ohlone Elementary, has worked with advocacy groups to raise awareness of the dangers the pesticide and fumigants pose in the air and water. “We’ve seen cancer cases, lung damage and asthma, effects on brain development, and unexplainable learning problems,” said Dennis. “It puts our students at a disadvantage.”
Following rules about what teachers are allowed to discuss with parents and students, Dennis and her colleagues waited months for the district to assess the situation and inform the community of the contamination. During that time students still drank freely at the water fountains. “The school district couldn’t be held liable because the levels of chromium-6 weren’t illegal, but they were very high,” said Dennis.
“We didn’t want to cause a scare,” said Dennis. “We couldn’t tell the students not to drink the water from the fountains because what would they drink?”
There was also the risk of the water being contaminated by the pesticides being used on the fields across the street. “It’s preposterous to think the pesticides aren’t affecting the water,” said Dennis. “There are thousands of harmful pesticides applied to the fields.”
According to the EPA, private wells can be susceptible to contamination because of pesticide use, nitrate being the most common infiltrator, so the health threats to Ohlone Elementary and other private wells near farmland that use pesticides are very real. Santa Cruz County did not respond to request for comment.
“Parents and educators weren’t happy and complained to the school district,” said Dennis. “We brought it up at meetings, wrote letters, petitions, and after a few months we got the district to agree to reverse-osmosis stations.” Reverse-osmosis removes chemicals such as chromium-6 and greatly reduces bacteria, other contaminants, chemicals, and viruses. Reverse-osmosis purifies water by removing most bacteria, chemicals, and contaminants such as chromium-6, according to the CDC.
The school district paid for four reverse-osmosis filter stations, which were installed just before the COVID-19 pandemic began. There are two stations inside and two outside, and students and staff can fill their water bottles and drink clean water during school. “It’s the purest and safest water out there,” said Dennis.
“It’s not being talked about”
According to the CDC, droughts can lead to a higher risk of water contamination in wells because bacteria and pollutants increase in rivers and wells when there is reduced river flow or rainfall. “The water begins to dry out and the contamination continues to sit there, and those contaminants are being pumped up into our drinking sources,” said Reyna Peralta, a community organizer for the Community Water Center.
The combination of drought and water contamination have affected communities all across California, yet the issue does not always garner attention. “A big part of the problem is that it’s not being talked about because it’s not a problem that impacts everybody,” said Peralta.
Raising awareness for well testing programs and organizing communities to seek solutions are two of the main goals of the Community Water Center. “Smaller water systems, a lot of community partners with private wells, have never had their wells tested, so they consume their water, or they simply haul their water in through bottled water,” said Peralta.
These, mostly low-income communities, often do not trust their water for a variety of reasons nor have the time to prioritize solutions. “Each household has a different story, different priorities, different needs, and we are all being connected around one big issue, which is water,” said Peralta. “Sometimes the households we work with don’t have the time, they have so many things to worry about that water is just not a priority for them.”
Prioritizing solutions
Short-term solutions have included a state-sponsored water jug delivery program as well as pickup sites according to Peralta. “Through the program, households with a private or a shared domestic well can qualify to receive up to 10 jugs with five gallons each,” said Peralta. “The delivery is completely free, the whole process is free, and our main priority is to ensure that these households have enough water.”
While the delivery program has helped a lot of residents, not everyone qualifies for the program nor trusts their water is safe. Water Spring, in Santa Clara, purifies and bottles water for its customers. “Santa Clara’s water is 14-grains hard, which is too hard, said Cesar G., an employee at Water Spring. “We soften our water with potassium and purify it through reverse-osmosis.”
Water Spring serves a variety of customer needs, one of those being health concerns. The company allows customers to be confident in the safety of their water and offer another short-term solution to unsafe tap water. “We get a mix of customers, some come for the taste and quality, and some are nervous to drink their water,” said Cesar.
Long-term solutions are much more complex and based on the individual community and the systems they have in place. They could include drilling a new well or developing a new water system with management, according to Peralta, which requires funding. “At the state level, we also advocated to make sure there’s funding for these resources and this conversation is not being left out of legislative spaces,” said Peralta.
Earlier this month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced a $5.1 billion package in response to the California water crisis on May 10. The package is part of a $100 billion plan to combat California’s most prominent challenges.
According to the announcement, the $5.1 billion being used specifically for water has been broken down into categories such as drinking water, wastewater infrastructure, groundwater cleanup, and wildlife issues. This package arrived over a year after Newsom stated that more than a million California residents do not have access to clean drinking water during his February 2019 State of the State Address.
The dedication of $5.1 billion is a noteworthy step in the fight for clean water, but Peralta knows there is more work to be done. “We want to make sure we break this information down to them… and how they can take advantage of this point in time to create a solution.”
About the Author: Dale Shakib is a graduating senior at Santa Clara University studying communication. Originally from Washington state, he lives in Santa Clara. Shakib writes about sports, environment and political news.
