Page 71 - Mapping the Nation: Taking Climate Action

England is part of a team in California's Tulare Lake Basin working to assess current water needs, especially those affecting disadvantaged communities that rely on wells and small water systems. Longstanding Inequity Water trouble is nothing new to California's Central Valley communities, where an estimated 254,000 people are at risk for nitrate contamination in their drinking water. In Seville, a majority Hispanic/Latinx community, which is home to about 500 people from mostly farmworker families who work in and support the nearby citrus groves and dairies, the struggle for safe water was ongoing. For many residents, the $120 they reportedly spent each month on bottled water was nearly 10 percent of their income. The United Nations (UN) cited the town in 2011 for "decrepit plumbing and public neglect." "People are just now able to drink the water coming out of their taps in Seville," England said in 2020. "We have to be able to have a connection to the people and stay the course for the communities." Six miles north of Seville, a similar hardship hit the farmworker community of East Orosi, where 500 residents could not drink the water for fear of contamination from chemical fertilizer and dairy manure. A news story connected failing water infrastructure to the legacy of racial discrimination related to access to services in rural areas, noting that 80 percent of disadvantaged communities without potable water are less than one mile from those with safe drinking water. Fifty miles south, in the town of Earlimart, 8,000 people learned they could not drink the well water starting in May 2020. Reports pointed to one failed well and another contaminated with twice the legal limit of the now-banned pesticide 1,2,3-Trichloropropane (TCP). A state order warned residents to boil their water to kill bacteria that could cause intestinal illness—many said their water supply was intermittent and had a noxious smell. With 40 percent of locals living below the poverty line in a predominantly Latinx community, according to census data, the cost of bottled water is untenable. And, even if residents could afford it, supply at local stores is limited. Visualizing Water Access While lawmakers, activists, and local water authorities grappled over what to do and who should do it, England and her colleagues worked to get a comprehensive picture of the situation in Tulare County. This map displays the communities that get their water from private wells and the potential locations of other unmapped communities. Upgrades to the small old water system were taking a phased approach—a new well, new pipes, and a connection to a system in the nearby town of Yettem. The project took heavy lobbying from residents and media attention to win a $4.1 million state grant. Funded by a grant from the California Department of Water Resources Integrated Regional Water Management Program, they hired Provost & Pritchard Consulting Group to collect and map relevant data about water supply systems, wells, water quality, and the people affected. The team used GIS to manage 70 Drought