More than 1 million Californians are affected by unsafe or
unreliable sources of water for cooking, drinking and bathing.
They can lose access to water supplies when their wells run dry,
especially during drought when groundwater is relied on more
heavily and the water table drops. Employment disruptions caused
by the COVID-19 pandemic can impair their ability to pay water
bills on time. Communities of color are most often burdened by
these challenges.
Below you’ll find the latest news articles raising
awareness on efforts to seek water equity written by the staff at
the Water Education Foundation and other organizations that were
posted in our Aquafornia news aggregate.
Who gets California’s water, and how much, is a high-stakes
affair, and it’s based on a system of water rights born long
ago, when the West was wild — and often unfair. The
first-come, first-served pecking order established during
European settlement gave the new and dominant landowners first
dibs on pumping rivers and creeks. The beneficiaries, which
include the likes of San Francisco and its pristine supplies in
Yosemite, continue to enjoy tremendous advantage, consuming
water with little constraint while others sometimes go without.
Amid growing water shortages and focus on equity, the system
has begun drawing increased scrutiny. Last week the state
Legislature weighed in with the unusual step of advancing
measures that would help regulators rein in the most privileged
and profligate water users.
On the night of Jan. 9, amid pelting rain, a levee along Miles
Creek in Merced County failed, flooding half the small town of
Planada, devastating the tightknit community that is home to
many undocumented farmworkers. Thousands of people were
displaced … few had flood insurance. … State money is
welcome and necessary, he said, noting that on top of the
damage to their homes, many farmworkers suffered loss of wages,
as fields were flooded and agriculture disrupted by winter
storms. Months ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom
announced that the state Department of Social Services
would mobilize its Rapid Response Fund to support “undocumented
workers and communities ineligible for FEMA individual
assistance due to immigration status.” Now, help appears to be
on the way.
The San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary
Water Quality Control Plan (Bay-Delta Plan) is currently
undergoing its periodic review of updates and amendments by the
State Water Resources Control Board. Tribal representatives
have requested the incorporation of recognized Tribal
Beneficial Use (TBU) definitions to the Bay-Delta Plan. If
these definitions are incorporated in the Bay-Delta Plan, the
State Water Board must also amend or establish water quality
objectives and implementation programs to achieve and maintain
water quality sufficient for these designated beneficial uses.
… The State Water Board is holding an informational
meeting on June 7, 2023, to discuss the potential addition of
TBUs to the Bay-Delta Plan.
Washington and Maryland are the latest states seeking to hold
chemical manufacturers liable for soil and groundwater
contamination caused by so-called “forever chemicals.” The
suits, filed in the states’ respective court systems, accuse
3M, DuPont and other makers of concealing longstanding
information about the dangers associated with toxic per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a group of more than 9,000
laboratory-produced chemicals used for a wide range of
industrial, commercial and consumer product applications for
more than 80 years.
As the United States Senate will soon vote to suspend the debt
ceiling, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, D-California, is pushing
for the federal government to spend more on water. Padilla
serves as Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works
Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife. He hosted
a hearing this week entitled “Water Affordability and Small
Water Systems Assistance” which looked at, “rising water rates,
aging infrastructure, and extreme weather events are increasing
water affordability challenges for communities across the
country,” according to a press release from his
office. During the meeting, advocates pushed for a
permanent national water assistance program; they argued that
such a program would particularly benefit rural areas.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., convened his first hearing as
chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee
on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife, on Wednesday. Sen. Padilla
appeared on the KCRA News morning show on My58 and said the
hearing will focus on how rising water rates, aging
infrastructure and extreme weather events have affected access
and affordability of clean water across the country.
… According to a state audit in 2022, California
required an estimated $64.7 billion to upgrade its water
infrastructure. In April, the EPA awarded a fraction of that,
$391 million. To hear more about the subcommittee’s
initiatives, watch the attached video.
California will send $95 million to flood victims in a
long-awaited program to assist undocumented residents suffering
hardship and damage from the recent months of storms. The money
will be available in many affected counties starting in June,
according to the state’s Department of Social Services.
The announcement comes two months after Gov. Gavin Newsom
promised flood victims that help would come from the state’s
Rapid Response Fund. Since then his office provided few details
despite repeated queries and criticism. Alex Stack, a
spokesperson for Newsom, said state officials were trying to
ensure the program would be accessible to a population that is
often hard to reach, while also protecting taxpayer funds from
fraud.
Senior water rights holders have arguably the sweetest deal in
California water. They often have ironclad deals and some even
get access to substantial water during the worst of
drought. But three new bills in the state legislature are
taking aim at senior water rights in an attempt to level the
playing field. The bills propose expanding the authority
of the state Water Resources Control Board. Senior water rights
date back to before 1914, when there was no permitting or state
water authority yet. For years, advocacy groups have
decried the water rights system and demanded changes. Some of
those changes could become reality if legislators and the
governor approve the current bills.
The people of Fairmead, California, in the Central Valley, have
struggled to gain reliable access to drinking water for years.
The unincorporated community of around 1,300 — “mostly people
of color, people of low income, people struggling and trying to
make it,” according to Fairmead resident Barbara Nelson —
relies on shallow wells to meet its needs. But in recent years,
the combination of drought and excessive agricultural pumping
has caused some domestic wells to go dry, and one of the
town wells is currently very low. Last year, Fairmead
received a grant to help plan for farmland retirement in order
to recharge groundwater under California’s Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA.
Two things bring people here, prisons and water, and this tiny
desert town is losing both. The locals interested in
keeping Blythe afloat have ideas: They’ll build a logistics
center, or they’ll develop better recreation opportunities on
the Colorado River, or they’ll reopen their soon-to-be
shuttered state prison as an immigration detention
center. …Then there’s Blythe’s water, which feeds fields
of alfalfa taken out of town by the truckload as bales of hay,
and is increasingly going to large farm conglomerates. The
Metropolitan Water District, which sends water to Los Angeles
and other Southern California cities, pays Blythe farmers to
leave their fields fallow as competition for Colorado River
water gets increasingly desperate. So if there’s no prison
and very little water, what becomes of this place?
As trickling snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada slowly raises Mono
Lake — famed for its bird life and outlandish shoreline
mineral spires — advocates are pressuring state water officials
to halt diversions from the lake’s tributaries to Los Angeles,
which has used this clean mountain water source for
decades. Environmentalists and tribal representatives say
such action is years overdue and would help the iconic lake’s
ecosystem, long plagued by low levels, high salinity and dust
that wafts off the exposed lakebed. The city of Los Angeles,
they argue, should simply use less water, and expand
investments in more sustainable sources – especially recycled
wastewater and uncaptured stormwater. This, they say, could
help wean the city off Mono basin’s water for good.
Toxic waste lurking in the soil under the San Francisco Bay
community of West Oakland, and places like it, is the next
environmental threat in a neighborhood already burdened by
pollution. Residents in these communities of color are calling
for climate justice as a form of reparations. The stability of
buried contamination from Oakland’s industrial past relies on
it staying in the soil. But once the rising waters of San
Francisco Bay press inland and get underneath these pockets of
pollution, a certain amount of that waste will not stay in
place. Instead, it will begin to move. More than 130 sites lie
in wait. Human-caused climate change is already forcing this
groundwater rise in West Oakland and other parts of the Bay
Area.
In San Diego County, 139 child care centers have reported lead
levels in drinking water above state safety standards,
according to state data. Centers built before 2010 are required
to test all faucets and drinking fountains, per Assembly Bill
2370. If levels are above five parts lead per billion
particles, they have to be fixed. It’s part of the licensing
requirements for child care centers.
[H]exavalent chromium—a highly hazardous substance emitted by
chrome-plating businesses—is 500 times more carcinogenic than
diesel exhaust, putting it in the cross hair of regulators for
decades. The California Air Resources Board today approved a
landmark ban on use of the substance by the chrome plating
industry. The ban requires companies, who opposed the action,
to use alternative materials. … The toxin has some
presence in popular culture. The court battle over the presence
of the chemical in drinking water in the San Bernardino County
town of Hinkley was dramatized in the movie “Erin
Brockovich.” But environmental advocates and residents of
Los Angeles’ low-income, industrial neighborhoods and cities
have long raised concerns.
Despite California’s historic wet weather this year that
brought relief to drought-stricken regions, one small city in
the San Joaquin Valley continues to suffer. No place has
suffered more from the state’s recent stretch of dry weather
than Coalinga in Fresno County. … And pay they did -
almost 10 times what the city would normally pay for its
water. Coalinga gets its water from the San Luis
Reservoir. At the drought’s height, the city’s allotment was
cut by 80%.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates there are more
than 9 million lead pipes (which is a significant source of
lead contamination) in drinking water across the United
States. It’s a problem that gained a national spotlight
after the Flint, Michigan water crisis which began in 2014.
Shortly after, California became the first state in the country
to make a commitment to remove all of its lead service lines.
But the lead pipe problem still persists. That problem is
highlighted in a new report mandated by state law and focuses
on potential lead contamination in the drinking water of
state-licensed childcare facilities. The report revealed that
drinking water at almost 1,700 childcare facilities across
California (roughly 1 in 4) exceeded the amount of lead the
state allows in drinking water.
In test results that suggest thousands of California infants,
toddlers and children continue to be exposed to brain-damaging
lead, data released by the state Department of Social Services
has revealed that 1 in 4 of the state’s child-care centers has
dangerously high levels of the metal in their drinking water.
Lead, a potent neurotoxin that poses a particularly grave
threat to children, was discovered in the water systems of
nearly 1,700 child-care centers licensed by the state. The
highest results came from a facility in San Diego that recorded
11,300 parts per billion at the time of testing — well above
the state’s limit of 5 ppb in child-care centers. One ppb is
the equivalent of one drop of contaminant in 500 barrels of
water.
If safe water is a human right, why does it remain out of reach
for so many? A Stanford-led project, supported by the
Sustainability Accelerator of the Stanford Doerr School of
Sustainability, is focused on the broad goal of achieving the
human right to water (HR2W) in California. Cindy Weng, a
PhD candidate in environmental engineering, is leading the
project’s data analytics for assessing equity in urban water
access during droughts. Recently, she discussed the project,
water equity issues, and potential solutions for California and
the rest of the country.
About 1,700 licensed child care centers in California — a
quarter of the nearly 7,000 tested so far — have been serving
drinking water with lead levels exceeding allowable limits,
according to data that the nonprofit Environmental Working
Group secured from the state. Susan Little, a senior advocate
for the environmental group, said it’s “really alarming” that
California infants and preschool-age children are being exposed
to this risk in places where their parents think they are safe.
Lead, of course, has been proven to permanently damage
children’s brains and other parts of their nervous system.
Martha Guzman is the regional administrator for the
Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Region 9 office in San
Francisco. She’s leading EPA efforts to protect public health
and the environment for a region that includes Arizona,
California, Hawaii, Nevada, the US Pacific Islands territories,
and 148 tribal nations. We spoke with Ms. Guzman to learn more
about the EPA’s latest environmental justice initiatives—and
found her to be a fountain of both information and
enthusiasm. The EPA recently announced an initiative to
support environmental justice investments, using funding from
the Inflation Reduction Act. Can you tell us about the new
environmental justice grants?
