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.
San Francisco’s homeless residents struggle to access enough
water to live and stay healthy, according to a grim report
released Tuesday by the nonprofit Coalition on Homelessness.
The Coalition surveyed 73 homeless residents, and found that 61
percent of them do not have access to 15 liters of water a day,
which is UNICEF’s disaster response standard for people to meet
a minimum survival level.
As a scholar, my work is situated at the intersection of
climate change, public health, and public policy. I am an
interdisciplinary researcher, and my interests are centered on
environmental justice….During California’s last extreme
drought, I was doing my field work and visited East
Porterville, which was ground zero for how water injustice was
hitting migrant communities, particularly undocumented Latino
migrants. They had very little water, and what they had was
often contaminated.
There’s a cruel irony to lacking access to quality water as the
sky pours rain, a luxury development’s fountain spews a
waterfall around the corner, and the bay is within walking
distance. Such is the case for the unhoused residents of an
encampment on the border of the California cities of Berkeley
and Emeryville, whom I visited on a March afternoon that cycled
between intermittent showers and partly-cloudy skies. It’s
located along train tracks and near the highway, with no clear
businesses or public facilities in the immediate area that
would be willing to offer a restroom or sink.
For many Californians, water bills are piling up at
unprecedented rates during the pandemic, exacerbating water
affordability issues that disproportionately impact low-income
residents and communities of color. A recent
survey by the California State Water Resources Board,
which was supported by research from the UCLA Luskin
Center for Innovation, shows the extent of water bill debt
accumulation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Households owe a
combined $1 billion in unpaid bills, which has increased
substantially since the pandemic. The report finds that roughly
12% of Californians have overdue payments on their water
bills.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
In a time of record-breaking unemployment as a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic, Californians owe an estimated $1 billion in
unpaid water utility bills. With reduced revenue, hundreds of
water utilities are at high risk of financial emergency. The
State Water Board estimates at least 1.6 million households
have an average of roughly $500 in water debt — a crisis that
could lead to a wave of families facing water shutoffs, liens
on their homes or other collection methods. … Data show
Black and Latino households are disproportionately
affected.
The pandemic and its economic fallout are affecting many
aspects of water management, while climate change has major
implications. And a much-needed national conversation about
racism has illuminated water equity issues—such as how we
address climate change, safe drinking water, and water
scarcity.
Lorelei Cloud is a member of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, a
relatively small tribe of 1,500 members, 1,000 of which live on
the tribe’s reservation covering a little more than 1,000
square miles south of Durango abutting the border with New
Mexico. Cloud’s experience is not uncommon in tribal homes
across the country, as nearly 48% of them — representing more
than half a million people — do not have “access to reliable
water sources, clean drinking water or basic sanitation,”
according to a 2017 congressional report.
Tens of thousands of Bay Area residents financially impacted
during the COVID-19 crisis now face tens of millions of dollars
in unpaid water bills, prompting both long-term financial and
public health concerns. That’s the conclusion of a new a report
released Thursday by the non-profit public policy organization
SPUR, and that looming potential crisis has experts concerned
about vulnerable customers.
A study of groundwater that feeds public drinking water
supply finds pesticides in 41% of supply wells (and a handful
of freshwater springs). Two-thirds of that 41% contain
pesticide compounds per se, and one-third contain pesticide
degradates — compounds resulting from biotic (or abiotic)
transformation of pesticides into other compounds.
Arizona depends heavily on the Colorado River, and it is
over-allocated, meaning, we collectively take more water from
the system than nature puts in. To make matters worse, the
Colorado River basin has been experiencing a prolonged drought
of more than 20 years. When you take the longer term view,
a lot of communities in Arizona are heavily dependent on fossil
groundwater supplies. Once you pump them out, they’re gone
forever. There are real problems looming when it comes to
groundwater management and the Colorado River.
The Southwest U.S. is mired in an ever-worsening drought, one
that has left deer starving in Hawaii, turned parts of the Rio
Grande into a wading pool, and set a record in Colorado for the
most days of “exceptional drought.” Why it matters: These
conditions may be the new normal rather than an exception,
water experts say, as climate change runs its course. And
worsening drought will intensify political and legal battles
over water — with dire consequences for poor communities.
The building of dams on the Colorado River has forever changed
the ebb and flow, flooding, drying and renewal cycle of what
was once Lake Cahuilla, changing its character and changing its
name to the Salton Sea. Entrepreneurs once thought that the
Salton Sea would become a sportsman’s mecca, providing fishing,
boating, and waterskiing experiences like no other. There were
a few decades where that dream seemed to be true. Then it
wasn’t.
A broad coalition of organizations is urging Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris to mandate a national moratorium on water and
other utility shutoffs on day one in the White House, in order
to curtail the spread of Covid-19 and ease the financial burden
on struggling Americans. … Only eight states –
California, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Virginia,
Washington and Wisconsin – and the District of Columbia
currently have moratoriums in place, but even these don’t
include debt forgiveness programs.
The stage is finally set for years of talking to be translated
into actual clean drinking water for potentially thousands of
San Joaquin Valley residents. But activists fear the effort
will flop before the curtain rises if more isn’t done to engage
the people who are drinking that water. The issue is nitrate,
which is rife the valley’s groundwater and considered
dangerous for infants and pregnant women.
Colorado is no stranger to drought. The current one is closing
in on 20 years, and a rainy or snowy season here and there
won’t change the trajectory. This is what climate change has
brought. “Aridification” is what Bradley Udall formally calls
the situation in the western U.S. But perhaps more accurately,
he calls it hot drought – heat-induced lack of water due to
climate change.
Vicky Espinoza is on a mission. Vicky is passionate about
making sure rural, low-income communities and small-scale
farmers have a say in land-use and water-management decisions
in the San Joaquin Valley.
As North County water stakeholders wait for the state’s
approval of a 20-year Paso Robles Groundwater Basin
sustainability plan, the State Water Resources Control Board
recently expressed concerns about whether that plan does enough
to reverse the basin’s decline and protect domestic well users.
Now that the calendar has flipped to January 2021, it’s time to
say goodbye to the mess of the past year, yes? … The
pandemic’s economic dislocation continues to reverberate among
those who lost work. Severe weather boosted by a warming
climate is leaving its mark in the watersheds of the Southwest
[including the Colorado River]. And President-elect Biden will
take office looking to undo much of his predecessor’s legacy of
environmental deregulation while also writing his own narrative
on issues of climate, infrastructure, and social
justice….Litigation over toxic PFAS compounds found in
rivers, lakes, and groundwater is already active. Lawsuits are
likely to continue at a brisk pace…
In 2016 the City of San Jose became the first Bay Area
municipality to get credit for homeless encampment cleanups
under its stormwater permit. So far, the city has exceeded
the permit’s annual requirements, most recently removing 446
tons of rubbish—more than double its goal—from encampments
along waterways. But Covid-19 has complicated this effort.
