Systemic Failure: Why 1 Million Californians Lack Safe Drinking Water

Small, cash-strapped water districts don’t have the financial, political or technological resources to treat some of the United States’ most contaminated drinking water. Woodville is an unincorporated community in eastern Tulare County in California’s San Joaquin Valley. There are hundreds of small, unincorporated communities like Woodville across the Valley that lack the tax base to fund the expensive water treatment facilities needed to treat contaminated groundwater.

Ralph Gutierrez usually works seven days a week, a punishing schedule he has kept up for the past 14 years. On most days you’ll find him at the office by 6:30 in the morning, the sole occupant of a two-room cement block building with a handful of desks and a “help wanted” sign taped to the front door. His job? Gutierrez oversees the water and wastewater services for Woodville, a small rural community in eastern Tulare County in California’s San Joaquin Valley. It’s typical of most communities of its size in the area – wide, flat streets with modest homes, the properties fenced at the road. A gas station and a liquor store double as grocery markets, and just a block from the main artery the pavement fades […]

Full article: Systemic Failure: Why 1 Million Californians Lack Safe Drinking Water