State funding brings small San Joaquin Valley town closer to long-term drinking water solution
The two-street town of Tooleville finally saw significant progress in a decades-long quest for clean drinking water this week when the state Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced $7.2 million in funding for an interim connection project. Tooleville will be hooked up to the nearby city of Exeter’s water system, something advocates and Tooleville residents have been asking for since the 2010s. … Tooleville has been plagued by contaminated water for decades. Most residents rely on bottled water. And the ongoing drought has resulted in surrounding farmers pumping more groundwater, dropping Tooleville’s water table and repeatedly drying up its two aging community wells.