The epicenter of the state’s drinking water catastrophe is in the San Joaquin Valley, where 200,000 people have struggled to obtain clean, safe water for decades.
Across California more than 1.5 million people rely on drinking water from a community system that has a water quality violation that could impact public health, according to an estimate by the state using 2015 data.
A further 166,000 people are connected to nearly 1,000 water systems serving just 75 to 300 people each.
“Small community water systems typically lack the infrastructure and economies of scale of larger water systems, and in some cases cannot afford to treat or find alternative supplies for a contaminated drinking water source,” an SWRCB report found.
There are 310,000 people living in 525 low-income, unincorporated communities in the San Joaquin Valley where water quality problems are common.
Seville, Quintana’s hometown, was among those listed.
But it’s a water system designed to feed the farms of the valley and the cities of southern California, not the region’s rural communities.
Lucy Hernandez lives in West Goshen in Tulare County, a community where the water is contaminated by high levels of nitrate.
“We’ve always had these problems.
But the more people you get involved, other communities, you have a bigger voice and people do listen.” In tiny Tombstone Territory, Carolina Garcia dreams of connecting her home’s water to the town of Sanger next door.