So far, our region’s drinking water remains mostly lead-free

originally posted on March 18, 2016

For decades, United States-based charitable organizations have been working to supply people who live in Third World countries with safe drinking water.

Here at home, we turn a faucet handle and safe, clean, fresh water appears like magic. We cheerfully donate money to these organizations because we want to share the wealth of safe drinking water with those who have no access to a reliable water source

But we learned recently that in Flint, Michigan, water that was believed to be safe by trusting residents actually wasn’t safe. It may have permanently damaged their children or grandchildren, and affected the health of many other residents of all ages. In Flint, this was caused by a money-saving decision that turned out to be a really devastatingly bad call.

The culprit? Lead that was incorporated into the city’s aging water infrastructure and buildings and homes that contained piping that used lead solder to seal pipe joints. It was never a problem until an emergency manager appointed by the state governor switched water sources in an effort to pinch pennies and balance the budget.

The more acidic water from the Flint River leached lead from those pipe joints and other plumbing infrastructure and ended up in the municipal drinking water – up to 15 times the “safe” levels allowed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

This, naturally, drew attention across the nation. It also prompted an investigation by USA TODAY, which has done a comprehensive analysis of lead in drinking water across the nation, with shocking results.

On Delmarva, we are fighting the encroachment of salt water into our drinking water supplies, and citizen groups are fighting to protect Salisbury’s Paleochannel aquifer. Iron, sulphur and other contaminants have affected well water on the Lower Shore for many generations, making it taste or smell unpalatable and giving rise to a new industry – home water treatment plants.

But lead is a different kind of threat – a public health hazard that is tracked and taken seriously.

An investigation by a Daily Times reporter indicates that for now at least, most drinking water on the Lower Shore does not contain lead, although a few sources have tested positive, albeit within federal limits.

For that, we can be grateful. But we have learned a hard lesson: Don’t take safe drinking water for granted.

A healthy dose of watchful vigilance is always needed – even here, in one of the world’s richest, most developed nations.

by Anthony Iton

In a civilized country, access to safe drinking water shouldn’t be a luxury. It’s a necessity as the foundation of a healthy life.

The lead water crisis in Flint, Mich., should never happen in any community. But we are all Flint.

Incredibly in 2016, more than 1 million Californians lack reliable access to safe drinking water.

In the eastern Coachella Valley in Southern California, families in the poorest neighborhoods struggle with contaminated well water. In the San Joaquin Valley, uranium, a key ingredient for nuclear plants and atom bombs, has been detected in drinking water. Some farm schools are being forced to buy bottled water because the drinking fountains are off-limits. For example, Waukena Elementary School in Tulare County was spending $10,000 a year on bottled water, money that would have bought a lot of books. To make matters worse, an Associated Press investigation found that authorities are doing little to inform the public about the risk.

These crises are shocking, but in some ways not surprising. In Flint, 57 percent of residents are African American and more than 41 percent of residents are poor. In the eastern Coachella Valley, 99 percent of residents are Latino. The San Joaquin Valley consistently ranks among the nation’s most impoverished areas.

See a pattern? People of color and families with very little money have virtually no power and they are concentrated in neighborhoods with both natural and man-made environmental conditions that endanger health. We have devalued their lives.

The symptom is unsafe drinking water, but the real illness is injustice.

The United States spends nearly $3 trillion a year on health care – more than twice as much as any country in the world – yet we rank relatively low on many measures of health and well-being. And in areas where we have made some progress (such as life expectancy), the gains are not equally shared. For the poorest Americans, life expectancy is actually declining.

When it comes to our health, our ZIP codes matter more than our genetic codes. Only about 20 percent of health status has anything to do with doctors and hospitals because where we live has a powerful effect on how healthy we are.

We need a new direction. That is why The California Endowment created Building Healthy Communities, a 10-year, $1 billion program that will help 14 low-income communities across the state improve their health by improving the places they live.

Flint may have Michael Moore, Cher and Sandra Bernhard advocating for it, but the Building Healthy Communities movement has thousands of residents and concerned citizens working together for real change. They understand that the health of a community doesn’t rely just on doctor’s visits, but also on the power of people to participate in reshaping the policies that determine the environments where they live.

In 2016, improving our health depends on creating a better democracy that is truly inclusive.

by Trevor Hughes, originally published on March 16, 2016

FIRESTONE, Colo. — Standing glumly behind the screen door of the brick house she has called home since 1971, Mary Schell shares the bad news: “We have it.”

“It” is confirmation that the water in her home contains high levels of lead. Schell and her husband tested their water in the fall after town officials discovered in October that 11 homes in their neighborhood had high levels. A subsequent round of testing in December found six homes exceeding federal limits.

Town officials repeatedly notified all water customers of the high levels and distributed information explaining how to reduce the risk. But the town, about 30 miles north of Denver, has taken no direct action to help residents replace the aging faucets and fixtures blamed for leaching lead into their drinking water.

The town’s testing found lead contamination only in homes built before 1986.

“We’ve talked about moving since we found out, but we never will,” Schell said of the single-story brick house she has lived in for 44 years. “We own this house.”

The town’s water provider installed a system in the fall to inject a phosphate coating agent into the water to help reduce the corrosive effect that leaches lead from plumbing. That’s the solution required by state regulators, who say Firestone is making progress in bringing down lead levels.

“It is our hope that this additive to our water supply will continue to reduce the lead levels inside these older homes,” Mayor Paul Sorensen said in a prepared statement.

Like many fast-growing towns on Colorado’s Front Range, Firestone is a small, old-town area surrounded with new suburbs. The town has a few blocks of old homes amidst nearly 3,500 newer ones.

In Firestone’s case, testing never has found lead in the municipal water supply or in any of the newer homes. That means the bulk of the town’s 12,000 residents face almost no risk.

The problem flows in the older homes.

A few blocks down from the Schells, Joe Martinez recalls how his now-rambling single-story home once had just two rooms and an outhouse in the yard. Martinez and his wife reared five kids in their home, adding space as the family grew.

Martinez is a veteran who has been drinking the water there for 60 years. All his indoor plumbing is now plastic.

He replaced the galvanized service line into his home awhile back with plastic, too.

“We’ve been here for years and years and years,” he said. “All of my kids are fine. That’s why I don’t worry.”

Firestone’s system is designed to prevent contaminated water from flowing from customers’ homes back into the main distribution system. All town-owned pipes running into customers’ homes are made of copper, town officials said.

They declined to tell USA TODAY whether the pipes are soldered with materials containing lead, which can leach into the water. Town officials also declined multiple opportunities to be interviewed and instead sent a statement reiterating that the water is safe.

In the most recent round of testing in December, six of 40 sites tested at greater than the action level. State officials consider that progress.

In October, 11 homes had lead levels higher than the federal action level.

The town has violated that federal standard five times since 2014. It’s required to test more frequently than other towns as a result.

The newest tests were conducted six weeks after Firestone’s water provider installed a system for reducing pipe corrosion.

“We’re very much headed in the right direction,” said Ron Falco, manager for Colorado’s Safe Drinking Water program. “You’d love to see no homes over the action level. That’s where we’d like to get to.”

Health experts are starting to believe that lead contamination must be addressed more quickly than it is in current federal laws and regulations, Falco said. Rules now require water systems to disclose high levels of lead, but they are under no obligation to halt water deliveries or help homeowners replace plumbing.

State health officials declined to release addresses of the Firestone homes found to have high lead levels in their drinking water. The law has no requirement that homeowners or real-estate agents disclose those elevated lead levels to prospective buyers, Falco said.

Both state and local officials withhold that information from the public.

Falco said he would drink the water in Firestone as long as he followed risk-reduction guidelines, such as flushing a faucet using cold water for 1 to 2 minutes. Instead, all water customers are alerted about the potential risk of lead contamination and advised how to reduce their risk. In contrast, lead-paint disclosures during home sales are mandatory.

Schell’s husband, a retired plumber, installed special lead-removal filters on their water lines and another one on a faucet in the kitchen in the fall. Stroking her cat Ned as he peered through the screen door at kids coming home from school, Schell said she thinks the town did a good job alerting customers to lead concerns when the tests came back positive.

Schell said she remembers when the block had only a few homes on it. She has watched the town and her own family grow up drinking the water.

They’ve never had any problems, she said. All her kids are healthy, but she worries about what she doesn’t know.

“I was concerned because they didn’t find it sooner,” she said. “It still concerns me, the high levels that we have.”

by Patricia Borns, originally published on March 16, 2016

AUBURN, Maine — Potatoes boiled on the stove in Nancy Beliveau’s kitchen as twilight fell on Pleasant Street, a neighborhood of time-worn homes.

“Should I be worried?” the red-headed mom asked, descending to a basement tangled with a century’s worth of plumbing that brings the city’s water to her family and tenants — water that tested high for lead in June.

Beliveau got a notice in her water bill in the summer warning that “some homes in Auburn have high amounts of lead;” part of a public education campaign that included TV, radio and newspaper coverage.

“I didn’t read the whole letter because I thought it applied to other homes,” Beliveau said.

The Environmental Protection Agency directs public water systems to test a subset of homes built before 1986, when lead solder was prohibited nationwide.

Lead isn’t healthy in any amount. When tests come back higher than 15 parts per billion, a water system is required to take action.

The Auburn water system that serves 16,530 people tested at 20 ppb in June. It hired a consultant to recommend corrective action and expanded its EPA testing program.

“The theory is if you have a really old house, leaching lead is sealed off because the chemicals we add to the water coat the inside of the pipes over time,” said Sid Hazelton, Auburn water and sewer superintendent.

“The lead problem comes from the delivery system,” he said. “We can’t control the plumbing in people’s homes.”

In reality, the lead content from water in Beliveau’s and other homes or businesses could vary.

“That’s why we encourage people to get their water tested if they have concerns,” Hazelton said.

When Ed Stebbins looks across the Androscoggin River from his brewery, Gritty McDuff’s, he sees the defunct Auburn mill where his grandfather once made bedspreads.

“There are probably some pretty old pipes delivering water here,” the brewer and co-owner said. “But I’ve got to be honest with you. We do a water analysis every two or three years, and I’ve never had it come back with anything but excellent brewing water.”

Gritty’s water source is Lake Auburn — so clean it doesn’t require a filtration system, a claim few Maine water sources can make.

Stebbins is aware of the water contamination in Flint, Mich.

“But the quality of water in this area compared to when I was a child — there’s no comparison.” he said, recalling his grandfather forbade him to swim in the Androscoggin River as a kid.

Stebbins had heard of the lead problem in Bangor — that city’s water system was corrected over a period from 2010 to 2013 — but wasn’t aware Auburn had one.

“I think we’ll get another water analysis,” he said.

Krysten Gabri kept her bottled water near as she shaped peanut butter protein balls on a baking tray at Tripp’sPrimal Farm and Kafé.

Gabri, who lives on the Auburn-Lewiston line, said she had heard about the city’s lead test and drinks filtered water at home from a landlord who already had installed a drinking water tap with a purification system.

“I remember hearing something last fall,” bakery owner Mark Tripp, who was working his second job as an Auburn firefighter, said by phone. “I thought they related it to the older pipes on the resident side of the service.”

To Tripp and his wife Jennifer, who helps run the bakery, the city’s high lead reading isn’t a big deal.

“We wash a lot of dishes, but we don’t do much cooking with water,” Tripp said.

But just the thought of lead in drinking water has a chilling effect.

While Gabri started frosting cakes, her colleague Brittany Carrier had been listening to the conversation. She lives 30 minutes away and hadn’t heard the news.

Carrier filled her water bottle from the tap, took a swig and paused, uncertain.

“It has lead?” she asked.

The EPA advises running cold water a few minutes before using it to reduce the risk of lead.

Beliveau had her water tested, not for fear of lead but because of a stubborn yellow stain that rings her shower after a week of using the water.

“I said, ‘What is this?’ Beliveau said. “I had to keep scrubbing it down.”

Staff from Auburn’s water department came and told her the water tested normal, but the yellow stains persist.

“I don’t drink anything that comes out of the tap anyway because it’s gross,” said her third-floor tenant, Jerry Bartlett, who was just hearing about the tests that revealed high lead levels. “I drink beer, soda, juice — anything but that.”

Beliveau remained firm in her belief of the area’s good water quality.

“I’ve been to lots of other states, and Maine has really good water,” she said. “Talk about lead. It’s that yellow residue that really bothers me.”

by Aleksandra Bush, originally posted on March 17, 2016

GRIMES COUNTY, Texas- The water crisis in Flint, Michigan is getting a national response but contaminated water has reportedly been found in the Brazos Valley. According to Environmental Integrity Project out of Washington DC, the water at the prison in Grimes County has high levels of arsenic. KAGS news reporter Aleksandra Bush spoke with the organization who says Wallace Pack Unit’s  water has been contaminated for a least a decade.

When someone goes to prison they lose their freedom, but at one prison unit in grimes county inmates have also lost access to safe tap water.

“More than twice the federal limit of arsenic in drinking water for a long period of time,” says Tom Pelton, the director of communication for thew Environmental Integrity Project.

A study done by the Environmental Integrity Project found that  65 Texas communities have water that contains higher levels of arsenic than the federal safe drinking water act allows.

“If you drink water with arsenic that’s more than the federal limit. you are facing an increased risk of cancer,” says Pelton.

There are almost 1,500 prisoners at the Wallace Pack Unit, where arsenic levels have been twice the limit for a decade. The limit of arsenic in water since 2006, is 10 parts per billon. The Wallace Pack Unit’s long-term average is 25 (ppb).

We reached out to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. they said the Texas Commission on Environmental quality has determined that the water is safe to drink. The commission told us the water is not an immediate health threat. (full statements below)

“If you smoke one cigarette it will not immediately kill you but if you smoke cigarettes for ten years, you will have an increased risk of cancer,” says Pelton.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice sent us a statement saying they installed a new water filtration system in 2006 but that it has yet to lower levels to the federal requirement. They said quote “we are currently in the design phase of a new filtration system.”

“Don’t drink the water,” says Pelton.

The Environmental Integrity Project recommends the more than 80,000 Texans who live in these high arsenic level communities drink bottled water. The prison right now does not have that option.

“You might give them a sentence of ten years in prison but you are also giving them a sentence of cancer,” says Pelton.

The Department Criminal Justice did not give a timeline as to when that new water filtration system will be installed. The Wallace Pack Unit was the only facility in our area, in this report, where high levels of arsenic was found in the water.

From the Texas Department of Criminal Justice:

“The federal government’s standards regarding arsenic have changed significantly over the last 10 years. After the standard was lowered in 2006 from 50 parts per billion to 10 ppb, the agency installed a water filtration system at the Pack Unit. The system lowered the levels near the new standard but did not fully satisfy the new federal requirement. We are currently in the design phase of a new filtration system. The water is frequently tested and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has determined that it is safe to drink.”

From the Texas Commission on Environmental Equality: 

“TCEQ follows EPA guidelines in arsenic notifications, including using the exact language in the letters as suggested by EPA, as well as using EPA drinking water standards, sampling methods, and analytical methods.  The potential danger of arsenic intake is very specifically detailed in the notification letters.

The TCEQ agrees with USEPA that arsenic levels typically found in the United States, specifically Texas, do not pose an immediate health threat.  Drinking water standards are set to protect people drinking 2 liters of water per day for 70 years.  The fact that typical Texas arsenic drinking water levels are not an immediate health threat is supported by the National Academy of Sciences and USEPA’s independent Science Advisory Board.  Studies of arsenic in drinking water in US populations (with much lower arsenic drinking water levels) do not consistently find associations with cancers.  The health effects associated with arsenic were characterized in studies of Taiwanese populations chronically exposed to arsenic levels 10 to 20 times higher than those found in Texas.

Out of the 65 water systems cited in the study, all but two are currently under enforcement, or have undergone enforcement,  either by the TCEQ, EPA, or Texas Attorney General.

The TCEQ also provides technical assistance to help water systems that are not complying with arsenic drinking water standards.  That includes assisting these water systems in finding funding opportunities to enable them to meet standards.”

published on March 18, 2016

Some 650 million people, or one in 10 of the world’s population, do not have access to safe water, putting them at risk of infectious diseases and premature death.

Dirty water and poor sanitation can cause severe diarrhoeal diseases in children, killing 900 under-fives a day across the world, according to United Nations estimates – or one child every two minutes.

Among newborn babies, the World Health Organization says infections caused by a lack of safe water and an unclean environment cause one death every minute somewhere in the world.

The U.N. says access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation services is vital to human health. It is also important for other reasons – ranging from easily identifiable and quantifiable benefits such as cost and time savings, to more intangible factors like convenience, well-being, dignity, privacy and safety.

The WHO estimates that every $1 invested in improving water supply and sanitation services yields gains of $4 to $12, depending on the type of intervention.

This year’s United Nations World Water Day, marked on March 22, is focused on water and jobs and designed to highlight how water can create paid and decent work and contribute to a greener economy and sustainable development.

by Jimmy King, originally published on March 15, 2016

82,000 Texas residents have drinking water with high levels of arsenic, but Texas officials claim that the chemically-tainted water is still safe to drink.

The Environmental Integrity Project released a report March 14 calling for the state to ensure that Texans have access to safe drinking water, reports The Dallas Morning News.

Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the EIP, slammed the state’s response to the tainted water.

“When told that their drinking water is violating the maximum contaminant limit under the Safe Drinking Water Act, most people want to know: ‘Can I keep drinking or cooking with this water? What does it mean?’” said Schaeffer.

“The health experts we depend on for advice, for translation, should ask themselves whether they would let their own families continue to use water that year after year violates Safe Drinking Water limits for arsenic.”

Many of the Texas communities with arsenic-tainted water are reportedly in rural areas.  The areas affected include McLennan and Hill counties, several trailer parks and a state prison.

by Emily C. Dooley, originally published on March 14, 2016

State environmental officials Monday night ordered Northrop Grumman to grant access to wells monitoring a Bethpage plume after the local water district reported levels of the radioactive element radium exceeded drinking water standards.

“If they [Northrop Grumman] don’t allow access, then we will assert our right to perform the testing ourselves,” the state Department of Enivronmental Conservation said.

Bethpage Water District runs two wells at its Sophia Street site, where the elevated levels of radium appeared. One showing the higher levels has been locked off from the water supply system since 2013 and the other is being used only as a reserve, such as for fire emergencies.

Water from those wells is not being delivered as drinking water, Bethpage Water Superintendent Michael Boufis said, and “the contamination is climbing” at that site.

The state’s order comes after Bethpage officials Monday sent a letter to several state officials and politicians asking the DEC to do a comprehensive investigation to find out where the radium is coming from.

The letter from the water district’s consultant, H2M architects + engineers, said Bethpage raised concerns with DEC about radium levels in 2013 but “the DEC was completely dismissive . . . and attempted to superficially explain away the radium concern as an overreaction and no cause for alarm,” H2M president and CEO Richard Humann wrote.

The region has long been plagued by a number of plumes emanating from a site in Bethpage once used by the Navy and later Northrop Grumman for aviation manufacturing.

Covering more than 600 acres, the sprawling operations gave birth to the Apollo Lunar module and the Hellcat fighter. But with that legacy came contamination, some of which has moved three miles south of the site.

Several cleanup plans are underway to treat soil and groundwater contamination, including volatile organic chemicals.

Radium, discovered by French physicist Marie Curie, occurs naturally in low levels in rock, soil, water, plants and animals.

Bethpage water officials say their Sophia Street well showed radium levels are higher than other places in the district.

DEC officials called the Bethpage results concerning and said radium testing is underway at 52 wells in the area. One well between the former manufacturing area and the Sophia Street wells showed peak radium levels of 8.59 picocuries per liter.

State and federal standards for radium in treated drinking water is 5 picocuries per liter averaged over a year based on quarterly testing. Bethpage officials say the Sophia Street well recently averaged 5.95 picocuries per liter.

“DECs evaluation of this data has led to the conclusion that it will be necessary to sample additional wells located between the Bethpage Water District wells and the highest sample location near . . . the former plant site,” DEC acting Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a letter to Northrop Grumman.

Boufis hailed the state’s decision saying, “I think it will help us make better-educated decisions in the future.”

Northrop Grumman spokesman Vic Beck said the company received the letter from the DEC and was reviewing it.

“It’s definitely alarming,” said Jeanne O’Connor, who lives near Sophia Street and is one of the founders of Bethpage Cancer Project, which is tracking cancer and autoimmune diagnoses. “It seems we’re told everything is under control and we keep getting new reports and new hot spots.”

In addition, Seggos also demanded Northrop Grumman provide a comprehensive “description of any and all radioactive materials manufactured, handled or installed in any other products manufactured at the site during the period of operation.”

Assemb. Joseph Saladino (R-Massapequa) said it was time for action to contain the plume. “We have to be focused on doing everything possible to step in and fix the problems we see occurring again and again in our water,” he said.

Bethpage Water District has asked the Nassau County Department of Health for guidance on what to do with the drinking wells. Boufis said it is likely they will remain offline. That means losing about 4 million gallons of drinking water capacity each day in the 33,000-customer district.

The district looked into treatment options but found them logistically impossible, Humann said. Removing the element would create a radioactive byproduct that can’t be shipped on bridges and tunnels, or disposed of through sewer systems.

The county has not finalized recommendations to the district, spokesman Brian Nevin said.

originally posted on March 13, 2016

It is critical for all families in our region to have access to a clean and reliable source of public drinking water. That’s why we applaud last week’s announcement of the award of more than $1.4 million in Small Cities Black Grant funding for two important water projects in Mercer and McDowell counties.

In Mercer County, a $1,209,503 funding award announced by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin will be used by the Mercer County Commission to help complete a $5.1 million project. The Oakvale Road Public Service District is working to extend water service to approximately 150 households in the Elgood area, including the communities of Elgood, Twin Oaks and Christian Ridge in eastern Mercer County.

The critically needed project will include the installation of new water lines, booster stations, a water storage tank and related improvements that are needed to provide safe drinking water to area residents.

The funding award also should help in getting water to Cheesy Creek, according to County Commission President Mike Vinciguerra. He estimated the completed system would bring water to approximately 165 families. Vinciguerra traveled to Charleston Tuesday with fellow commissioners Gene Buckner and Greg Puckett to accept the funding award.

In neighboring McDowell County, the town of Northfork was awarded $200,000 in Small Cities Block Grant funding. That Small Cities Block Grant award will be used as part of a larger $6.35 million project that involves the replacement of the existing water system that serves the Upland, Powhatan, Kyle, Northfork and Keystone communities. The project also will provide a second water source for the Maybeury Water Treatment Plant.

State officials estimate the project will serve approximately 400 households. Tomblin said the project replaces a water distribution system that has exceeded its useful life and is plagued by frequent line breaks and water loss.

On the federal level, U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., said he voted to increase funding above President Barack Obama’s original budget request to ensure the approval of the Smalls Cities Block Grant funding awards to Mercer and McDowell counties, and 11 other infrastructure improvement projects in West Virginia.

The two funding announcements for Mercer and McDowell counties are welcomed, and will help in providing clean drinking water to area residents in need. No family should be deprived of the basic necessity of clean and safe water. Having basic infrastructure such as public drinking water and sewer, along with high-speed broadband, is absolutely vital for future growth in these and other communities across our region.

by Genoveva Islas and Susana De Anda

The recent tirade by Fresno County Board of Supervisors Chairman Buddy Mendes upset many people, but it came as no surprise to members of the San Joaquin Valley Sustainable Agriculture Collaborative. This behavior is part of a long-term pattern. It happens regularly in public meetings and more often behind closed doors when people advocate to improve conditions in their low-income communities.

The only difference this time is that it was caught on tape and reported by local media, including The Bee. Mendes and his fellow supervisors, who sat silently while he verbally abused our collaborative’s coordinator, Janaki Jagannath, deserve the criticisms they have received, and clearly a public apology is due.

But we should not lose sight of the issues at hand. It would only serve Mendes’ purpose if his personal failings were to become the topic. Jagannath has been working alongside residents in the rural community of El Porvenir for the past two years to address their lack of potable water and their very high water bills, which include this warning: “The water is contaminated and can cause long-term chronic health risks.”

This unincorporated community in western Fresno County is home to dozens of farmworker families and located in the most productive agricultural region in California. It is also home to some of the most poverty-stricken communities in the state.

During the meeting, Jagannath attempted to address the difference between agricultural irrigation water and municipal and industrial water safe enough for drinking, cooking and bathing, and the county’s need to meet state public health and safety requirements for all residents.

When a similar situation took place in nearby Cantua Creek last year due to the rising cost of federal water, Fresno County officials folded their arms and waited for advocates to identify state grants to pay for emergency water supplies.

Without further intervention on behalf of these two communities, supervisors will soon be dealing with a major public health crisis and a national embarrassment as it denies drinking water to residents.

We expect our elected officials, including dairy farmer Mendes, who owns land in the Westlands Water District, to leave their vested interests at the door and fulfill their role as representatives of the entire community.

On this issue, Mendes’ job is to ensure every resident in Fresno County has access to safe, clean and affordable water. Farmworker communities across the San Joaquin Valley are affected by the historic lack of planning for the provision of basic services for their communities. While California field workers have built the agricultural economy of this state, they rarely receive their fair share of the benefits, including basics such as water, transit and housing.

We will continue in our efforts and not be shouted down. We call on our elected officials to join the effort to find solutions to these serious problems and to do so with civility. There is too much at stake to waste any more time.