Drinking Water Crisis Brewing in California

[TexasTowelie]

The drinking water crisis of Flint, Michigan may be happening again, right here in California. That’s the assessment of the State Water Resources Control Board, who note that approximately 400 communities in California have water that does not meet safe drinking standards.

At a Wednesday, February 8 public workshop, the board showed an alarming map of all of the California towns whose drinking water may be unsafe. Most of these communities are located in the central valley of California, but the central coast and southern California are also affected.

“Many drinking water systems in the state consistently fail to provide affordable, safe drinking water to their customers,” the State Water Board said in a release. “Lack of safe drinking water is a problem that disproportionately affects residents of California’s disadvantaged communities. The State Water Board has previously estimated that roughly 400 disadvantaged communities in the state receive water from a public water system that does not meet drinking water standards.”

The contamination problems are a little different than those in Flint, Michigan, where lead from aging pipes polluted the drinking water to unsafe levels. In California, most of the drinking water contamination comes from natural contaminants like arsenic, or nitrates from nitrogen-based fertilizers that were used years ago.

Read more: http://www.sfweekly.com/news/drinking-water-crisis-brewing-in-california/

[procon]

1. My small rural community maintains water wells that have

slowly climbed to the top allowable range for arsenic leaching from old abandoned mines. We're to few and too impoverished to afford the expensive filtration system that would at least remove some of the arsenic. Right now we're doomed, waiting for the next test report that will one day kick us over the max amount and bring in the state health people who could shut down the whole system. Living in the desert with no water is not an option.

[braddy]

2. Where is the map?

[TexasTowelie]

3. Here is the overall map, I don't know if you can drill down though: