Starting nearly 118 years ago, arsenic-laced groundwater and dry wells all but killed the hopes of California’s only town founded and governed by African Americans, many of them formerly enslaved. On Tuesday, residents of Allensworth celebrated a new well that will finally bring clean, abundant water to the town that was beset by water troubles soon after it was founded 1908 by Col. Allen Allensworth. … The new well, along with an arsenic treatment system and 500,000-gallon storage tank, are being paid for through a $3.8 million grant from the Water Resources Control Board’s Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) program. 

Other water quality news:

• The Colorado Sun (Denver): Drinking water agency sues Denver for “forever chemical” taint from firefighting center