Students find saving water “elementary”
When a region’s groundwater is critically depleted and its dirt as hard as a frying pan, how do you refill the aquifer? Ask a fifth grader. Actually, ask the fifth and sixth grade combination class at Bakersfield’s Munsey Elementary School taught by Barbara Elrod. Elrod’s students discovered a pretty cool way to both conserve water…
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Clean water plans need more public involvement, activists say
The stage is finally set for years of talking to be translated into actual clean drinking water for potentially thousands of San Joaquin Valley residents. But activists fear the effort will flop before the curtain rises if more isn’t done to engage the people who are drinking that water. The issue is nitrate, which is …
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COVID-19 relief includes money for water bill debt. Will it be enough?
The COVID-19 relief bill passed last month includes $638 million to address the growing issue of water bill debt across the nation. When the pandemic dug in last spring, many states, including California, issued moratoriums on household water shut offs for lack of payment. That moratorium is still in place in California and water debt…
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Expiration dates looming for TCP lawsuits
The clock is ticking for some water systems and well owners to file a claim if they’re considering suing Dow Chemical and Shell Oil companies for possibly tainting groundwater with a chemical known as 1,2,3-TCP. You need to login to view the rest of the content. Please Login. Not a Member? Join Us
Read MoreFREE! water quality testing for domestic well owners
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Unpaid water bills a “pending disaster” the state is trying to head off
If the state has any hope of heading off a looming “tidal wave” of residential water shut offs and bankrupt water systems it has to get a picture of current impacts, advocates urged. Right now, the state doesn’t even have a blurry sketch. Which is why the State Water Resources Control Board directed staff on…
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Last minute loan keeps drinking water projects afloat
Small, failing drinking water systems got a funding life preserver among a flurry of budget bills at the chaotic end of the California legislative session. Drinking water advocates had fretted the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) program, intended to help struggling water systems in mostly poor, rural areas, would fall victim…
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Proposed $171 million Central Valley groundwater bank faces TCP contamination
A Kern County groundwater bank proposal just at the starting blocks has been hit with 1,2,3-TCP contamination. Irvine Ranch Water District and Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District had just begun the environmental review process for their joint banking project this past April when TCP reared its head. “It doesn’t appear TCP is an existential threat…
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Tainted valley groundwater could stymie banking deals
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Read MoreClean water advocates hoping to safeguard SAFER funding
Just when it looked like small drinking water systems in California were finally getting the long-term help they so desperately need, along came COVID-19. The state is peppered with failing small systems, many serving low-income communities without the resources to repair them. At least one-third of those failing systems are in the San Joaquin Valley,…
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