More than 400 California communities have drinking water that does not meet safe standards, says the State Water Resources Control Board.

by Joe Kukura, February 09, 2017

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 analarming 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.”

California does have some lead contamination, though. A Reuters investigation published in December found that children in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood tested with higher levels of lead exposure than children in Flint.