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Topic: Water Equity

Overview June 14, 2020

Water Equity

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.

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Aquafornia news May 27, 2022 EurekAlert!

News release: Experts detail the abundance of diverse “unconventional water sources”

UN and partner water experts say it is time to increase the tapping of Earth’s diverse and abundant unconventional water sources – the millions of cubic kilometres of water in deep land-based and seabed aquifers, in fog and icebergs, in the ballast holds of thousands of ships, and elsewhere. A new book, Unconventional Water Resources … says these potential supplies can help many of the 1 in 4 people on Earth who face shortages of water for drinking, sanitation, agriculture and economic development.

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Aquafornia news May 26, 2022 E&E News

PFAS pose ‘watershed’ moment for Superfund liability

The Biden administration’s ambitions to crack down on “forever chemicals” — touted as an administration priority — are facing headwinds from key industries that say they could be unfairly punished and held liable for contamination they did not create. Members of the water and waste sectors are ramping up pressure on Congress and EPA to shield them from an upcoming proposal as the agency makes progress on addressing PFAS contamination. 

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Aquafornia news May 25, 2022 Orange County Water District

News release: The first of four PFAS treatment facilities in Garden Grove begins operation

The Orange County Water District and the City of Garden Grove began operating one of four treatment plants being constructed in Garden Grove to remove per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from local well water. PFAS are a group of thousands of manmade, heat-resistant chemicals that are prevalent in the environment and are commonly used in consumer products to repel water, grease and oil. Due to their prolonged use, PFAS are being detected in water sources throughout the United States, including the Orange County Groundwater Basin, which supplies 77% of the water supply to 2.5 million people in north and central Orange County. 

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Aquafornia news May 24, 2022 Palm Springs Life

Pacific Ocean plays key role to restoring beleaguered Salton Sea

Annette Morales Roe learned how to waterski off the north shore of the Salton Sea in the 1960s. … Her family stopped visiting in the early 1970s, around the same time scientists began warning that the Salton Sea would shrink and become inhospitable to wildlife without a sustainable water source. … Now, Roe is certain that she knows how to fix the problem — and has the team to do it. As managing partner and chief strategy officer of Online Land Planning LLC, she is advocating for a plan that would reroute recycled water that’s currently flowing into the Pacific Ocean to the Salton Sea …

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Aquafornia news May 24, 2022 Voice of San Diego

San Diego pays a lot for abundant water. Tijuana pays a different price for water scarcity

Maria Herrera had about a quarter left in her last five-gallon water jug. On that April afternoon, though, spotty water service returned to the 67-year-old woman’s apartment, before the jug emptied. If it hadn’t, that was all she had left to bathe, do housework or drink. Herrera lives in Villas de Santa Fe, a neighborhood of cookie-cutter apartment blocks on the rapidly growing outskirts of Tijuana. Baja’s state water agency, called CESPT, shuts off her water at least once a week, she said. Last summer, Herrera said she went six days with dry taps. 

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Aquafornia news May 24, 2022 California Lutheran University

New research: Microfiber pollution

Bits of your pants, shirts, socks and fleece jackets are polluting local waters. Cal Lutheran biology students have discovered this disturbing fashion dilemma as part of a scientific research project. For the past four years, CLU biology professor Andrea Huvard, PhD, has guided dozens of students in a long-term research project: They are studying the presence of microfibers in the ocean, sediments and marine animals around Southern California.

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Aquafornia news May 24, 2022 UC Riverside

New research: Microbes can degrade the toughest PFAS

Engineers at UC Riverside are the first to report selective breakdown of a particularly stubborn class of PFAS called fluorinated carboxylic acids (FCAs) by common microorganisms. Under anaerobic conditions, a carbon-carbon double bond is crucial for the shattering the ultra-strong carbon-fluorine bond by microbial communities. While breaking the carbon-carbon bond does not completely degrade the molecule, the resulting products could be relayed to other microorganisms for defluorination under in aerobic conditions.

Related articles: 

  • Bloomberg Law: PFAS in Sewage Sludge, Industrial Wastewater Targeted for Rules
  • Jezebel: Erin Brockovich Is Still Trying to Save Us
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Aquafornia news May 23, 2022 Bloomberg Law

Companies face billions in damages as PFAS lawsuits flood courts

For years, plaintiffs’ lawyers suing over health and environmental damage from so called forever chemicals, known collectively as PFAS, focused on one set of deep pockets—E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. But over the past two years, there’s been a seismic shift in the legal landscape as awareness of PFAS has expanded. Corporations including 3M Co., Chemguard Inc., Kidde-Fenwal Inc., National Foam Inc., and Dynax Corp. are now being sued at roughly the same rate as DuPont, according to a Bloomberg Law analysis of more than 6,400 PFAS-related lawsuits filed in federal courts between July 2005 and March 2022. 

Related article: 

  • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: EPA Adds Five PFAS Chemicals to List of Regional Screening and Removal Management Levels to Protect Human Health and the Environment
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Aquafornia news May 20, 2022 Valley Voice

Water contamination in Exeter critical but fixable

Last week, an official and dire-sounding warning about high nitrate levels in the city of Exeter’s water supply began appearing on social media sites, and with them came comments rife with speculation, fearful reactions and visions of impending doom. The water situation in the midsize foothill town, however, is not as dangerous or widespread as some of those who stumble across the notice without context imagine it is. … The reality, says Exeter’s Director of Public Works Daymon Qualls, is Exeter’s water remains safe for most consumers. It should not be consumed by infants and pregnant women until the nitrate levels drop, probably in the autumn when the dry season ends. 

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Aquafornia news May 18, 2022 USA Today

New studies highlight health risks of modern chemicals and pollution

Tuesday, a study published in the journal The Lancet expanded on pollution concerns globally, revealing that air and water pollution causes 1 in 6 deaths worldwide. At more than 9 million deaths per year, such pollution kills more people than malnutrition, roadway injuries and drug and alcohol use combined, the study found. … Though the changing climate is often viewed as the most pressing global environmental threat, researchers warned that on-the-ground pollution poses ecological and humanitarian catastrophes of its own. 

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Aquafornia news May 18, 2022 SJV Water

Tiny Allensworth on the front lines of bad water and innovative solutions

When it comes to finding innovative solutions to drinking water problems, the tiny community of Allensworth in Tulare county has long been on the front lines. This spring, community began testing a new technology that would “jolt” arsenic out of its groundwater. And since 2021, Allensworth has also been home to another new technology that “makes” water out of thin air. Both technologies are currently being field-tested in Allensworth. If successful, they could become viable paths to clean water for residents of Allensworth and other small, rural San Joaquin Valley communities …

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Aquafornia news May 18, 2022 SJV Sun

Lemoore launches salvo against effort to swipe to Kings River floodwater

Lemoore is speaking out against the efforts of an out of town water entity to export water from the Kings River. The Lemoore City Council approved a letter in opposition to a petition to revoke the Fully Appropriated Stream (FAS) status of the Kings River on Tuesday. The letter is directed to the State Water Resources Control Board, which is hearing a petition from Kern County water agency Semitropic Water Storage District to revoke the FAS status.

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Aquafornia news May 17, 2022 Law360

Blog: Court declines to lift blockade on water laws targeting pot

A California federal judge has declined to lift an injunction on two Northern California county ordinances that require strict permits for the transport of water, saying that while the local laws were enacted to quash illegal cannabis farms, they’ve caused harm to a group of Hmong farmers. In a decision handed down Friday, Chief U. S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller found that although Siskiyou County had modified the ordinances, they were still likely to cut off water to a community of Hmong farmers within the county’s borders.

Related article: 

  • KOBI Yreka: Siskiyou County Sheriff asks for ‘state of emergency’ declaration due to black market marijuana 
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Aquafornia news May 17, 2022 KUNC - Greeley, Colo.

New bill aims to boost tribal access to clean water

Two recent moves aim to benefit water access for tribal communities in the Colorado River basin. One, a bill in the U.S. Congress, could increase access to clean water. Another, the release of a “shared vision” statement, outlines the goals of tribes and conservation nonprofits. Tribes in the basin hold rights to about a quarter of the river’s flow, but have often been excluded from negotiations about how the river’s water is used.

Related article: 

  • KNAU – Arizona: Two bills in Congress aim to expand water access on tribal lands 
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Aquafornia news May 16, 2022 Foothills Sun-Gazette

Tooleville water connection project expected to take eight years to complete

The process of connecting Tooleville’s water system to Exeter’s, which would relieve the small community of longtime water supply and contamination issues, is expected to take eight years.  Information from the feasibility study needed to start planning the project has been unfolding bit by bit, mainly through biweekly meetings held between Exeter city officials, representatives from Tooleville, staff from Self Help Enterprises and Provost and Pritchard, the consultants in charge of the study.  

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Aquafornia news May 16, 2022 Ventura County Star

Opinion: Clean drinking water should be a right, but now we must fight for it

As a young person growing up in Ventura County for the past 19 years, I am no stranger to droughts. Not watering the lawn and taking shorter showers is simply a part of life in Southern California. Although water is scarce in Ventura County, there is currently a direct threat to our drinking water. Unfortunately, the oil industry wants to profit at the expense of our precious groundwater that supplies drinking water to over 400,000 Ventura County residents and irrigation water to our $2 billion agriculture economy.
-Written by Alex Masci, an undergraduate in environmental studies at UC Berkeley, a coordinator with CA Youth Vs Big Oil, and a supporter of VC-SAFE. 

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Aquafornia news May 16, 2022 Courthouse News Service

Judge blocks water sanctions that would affect rural Asian immigrants

A federal judge struck down a second attempt by a Northern California county to dismiss a case against them for water sanctions that would leave the local Asian community without water.  … In the original complaint, plaintiff Der Lee compared living in Shasta Vista to his days hiding out in the Laos jungles — just now without water. Others explained that they only bathe once a week, are dehydrated and have had their food sources — crops and livestock — die from the lack of water access. As a result, many resorted to filling jugs with water in streams and local parks. 

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Aquafornia news May 10, 2022 Scientific Reports

New research: The effect of reducing per capita water and energy uses on renewable water resources in the water, food and energy nexus

A significant percentage of the world’s population does not have adequate access to water, food, and energy resources (WFE). Although efforts to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals and later the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have increased access to scarce resources, still, 25.9% of the population is affected by moderate or severe food insecurity in 2019, 2.2 billion people lacked access to potable water in 2017, and 789 million people lacked electricity service in 2018. The pressure on WFE resources will increase as the world’s population grows from 7.4 billion in 2016 to 9.7 billion in 2050.

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Aquafornia news May 10, 2022 The Sun-Gazette Newspaper

Allensworth groundwater storage project receives funding from DWR

 A plan has been put in place to help replenish groundwater supplies in Allensworth, a community historically affected by water supply issues. Led by the Tri-County Water Authority, the Allensworth Project is a multi-component plan aimed at replenishing groundwater supplies and mitigating emergency flood water damage by constructing two gravity-fed basins to catch flood runoff from the White River. The basins will divert water from the river for direct use and recharge, and will be used as a recreational park during dry seasons.

  • Modesto Bee: Stanislaus students create displays promoting free water for homes with tainted wells
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Aquafornia news May 10, 2022 San Bernardino Sun

Havasu Water Co. fined for leaving residents without drinkable water

State regulators have fined a Havasu Lake water company that has failed to provide potable water to its customers for more than a month and been accused of allowing its equipment to fall into a state of disrepair. The California State Water Resources Control Board issued the $1,500 fine on Friday, May 6, after the Havasu Water Co. failed to meet state-imposed directives and deadlines. The state has given a new list of directives and deadlines for the water company to meet by May 20 or it could face additional penalties. The Havasu Water Co.’s system has fallen into a state of disrepair over the years …

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