By Peak Johnson

A new website from the State Water Resources Control Board in California showed that there are nearly 300 communities within the state that are currently not meeting safe drinking water standards.

According to the authors of an opinion piece published in The Sacramento Bee, more residents in California lack access to drinking water than those in Flint, MI.

“This new website will serve as a valuable resource for the general public seeking drinking water compliance data on the state’s regulated water systems,” Darrin Polhemus, deputy director for the State Water Board’s Division of Drinking Water, said in a press release. “Here the public will be able to see what types of contamination issues water systems are facing and what they are doing to return to compliance."

The website allows users to locate their water system and see whether or not it adheres to federal drinking water standards. The site also shows an interactive map that displays the 292 public water systems that are out of compliance with federal standards for contaminants, including nitrate and arsenic.

According to the authors published in The Sacramento Bee, “Flint was the canary in the coal mine for safe drinking water: All across the country, and particularly in California, low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately impacted by unsafe drinking water. We know this because our organizing efforts have built relationships with people whose health is suffering as a direct result.”

One example provided in the piece is the 600 residents living in Lanare, who have had their tap water contaminated with high levels of arsenic for more than decade.

The Fresno Bee reported back in September that an environmental group had said “that 55,000 people statewide are at risk of drinking tap water contaminated with arsenic, and many of the communities are poor, mostly Latino towns in the San Joaquin Valley.”

Based in Washington, D.C., the Environmental Integrity Project had said that “required warnings to water customers fail to explain the dangers from arsenic exposure and need to be strengthened.” The group said in its report that “A total of 95 water systems have average arsenic levels of more than 10 parts per billion, which is above the federal maximum contaminant level.”

Lanare has an arsenic treatment plant, according to The Sacramento Bee, but it is unused. The community had been able to construct a plant with grant funding that it received in 2006, however, “just six months after opening, the plant had to be mothballed because the small, low-income ratepayer base could not afford ongoing operation and maintenance costs. Lanare was left in debt with contaminated water once again running to homes.”

The website also incorporates information on efforts being made to assist local communities in addressing contamination problems. The press release states that, “In recent years, for example, smaller water systems in disadvantaged communities have returned to compliance by consolidating with larger systems. Some of these success stories are described on the website.”

The portal will be updated with new information as it becomes available, including content related to drinking water affordability and accessibility.

To read more about informing consumers of contamination problems visit Water Online’s Consumer Outreach Solutions Center.