Approximately 2.2 million people in the United States lack access to safe drinking water. Unfortunately, rural communities such as those in the Central Valley are disproportionately affected due to poor infrastructure, agriculture and climate change.
Water is life. We need it to keep our blood flowing and our foods growing. As Californians, we know how essential water is to our survival. Our economy and livelihoods depend on access to plentiful and clean water.
More than half of the fruits and vegetables eaten in the United States are produced in the Central Valley. Ironically, the people putting vegetables on your plate are the same ones that are most negatively affected by the agricultural and pesticide pollution that has irrevocably tainted our land and infrastructure.
For Pixley, a small town of nearly 4,000 residents in southwest Tulare County, access to clean water feels like wishful thinking. For decades, residents have relied on bottled water for drinking and cooking because their tap water is saturated with dangerous pollutants.
“Boil water” advisories are frequent, and residents do their best to avoid the polluted water running through their homes. Aging pipes, overdrawn aquifers and contamination from agricultural runoff are the primary culprits. Such issues are hard to fix thanks to generations of underinvestment in public utilities. Many water systems were built decades ago and are in need of significant and expensive upgrades—something that would not only take a lot of time but also millions of dollars in funding.
For people like Maggie Ramirez, who has lived in Pixley for most of her life, unsafe water is the norm. She’s been receiving letters saying her water doesn’t pass state standards for as long as she can remember.
“I’ve been drinking bottled water for years,” she explained. “The arsenic levels are too high in the water. I risk the showers, but I can’t really do that with drinking water.”
Unfortunately, she doesn’t have much of an option other than to buy bottled water as “most water filters don’t filter arsenic out, so there is very little recourse.”
How did it get this bad?
The Central Valley has seen decades of overused resources that are now on the verge of depletion. In the mid-20th century, groundwater became the lifeblood of farming operations as an alternative to surface water allocations that could not keep up with industrial agriculture. This nonstop extraction of water has left the Valley’s aquifers dangerously overdrafted. Adding to this already bad situation is the agricultural runoff rich in fertilizers and pesticides, leaching into the water supply for thousands of families.
Residents of Pixley began to be formally notified about the dangers of their water supply in the 1990s when nitrate levels and other contaminants started regularly exceeding federal safety limits. State and local water agencies were required to issue “boil water” notices or advisories under the Safe Drinking Water Act when violations occurred.
The Safe Drinking Water Act was enacted in 1974 and serves as the primary federal law ensuring safe drinking water for Americans. It sets national water safety standards such as enforceable maximum contaminant levels and requires water testing and monitoring of local water systems.
Most Affected Communities
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified more than 2,000 water systems across the country that currently fail to meet federal safety standards, affecting almost 25 million people. Most of these violations take place in rural and low-income communities, such as those in the Central Valley, and places like Flint, Mich., and Jackson, Miss. These areas often lack the political backing and financial resources to demand recourse.
Unsurprisingly, low-income Black and Brown communities are most affected. According to a 2019 study published by the Natural Resources Defense Council, predominantly Black, Latino and Indigenous communities are more likely to experience unsafe drinking water.
This inequality isn’t coincidental thanks to historical redlining and disinvestment in public utilities and regulatory agencies and the intentional offloading of industrial pollution into impoverished areas.
What exactly is in the water?
Pixley’s water is a poisonous cocktail of contaminants with dangerously high levels of nitrates, arsenic and 1,2,3-Trichloropropane (1,2,3-TCP).
Agricultural runoff from fertilizers saturates the groundwater and comes with a horrifyingly long list of health effects. For example, nitrates cause health risks such as cancer, thyroid disease and even “blue baby syndrome” in infants. The Central Valley, including Pixley, is among the most nitrate-polluted regions in California.
Meanwhile, naturally occurring arsenic leaches from depleted aquifers, exposing residents to cancer and cardiovascular risks.
1,2,3-TCP—a carcinogen linked to industrial solvents and as an ingredient in the manufacturing of pesticides—is known to damage liver and kidney function and cause cancer.
Pixley’s aging water infrastructure is simply unable to handle these challenges, being constantly at risk for leaks and contaminants that aren’t properly filtered.
Updates
Local organizations such as the Community Water Center are pushing for greater transparency and accountability in water management while lobbying for greater state and federal funding.
In 2021, Pixley secured an $11.5 million settlement from Dow Chemical Company and Shell Oil Company over water contamination linked to 1,2,3-TCP, a toxic chemical used in industrial solvents and pesticides that has plagued the city’s groundwater for decades.
Both companies have been sued for similar issues across the country. Shell Oil has been involved in litigation more than 20 times in the past decade over pollution and human rights abuses. Dow Chemical was targeted by the antiwar movement for its production of Agent Orange (dioxin) and napalm in the Vietnam war. Nearly 20 million gallons of dioxin were poured over Vietnam—which Dow Chemical knew at the time was exceptionally toxic and remained as a pollutant in the soil.
Despite Pixley’s settlement, the funds have not been enough to fix the situation.
In addition to the 2021 settlement, Pixley residents have actively engaged in legal actions to safeguard their environmental health. Earlier this year, the community organization Pixley Residents for Environmental Justice filed a lawsuit challenging Tulare County’s approval of the Golden State Hydrogen Plant. The group contended that the County improperly exempted the project from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review, raising concerns about potential environmental impacts, including those on local water resources.
The proposed hydrogen plant in Pixley could cause more of a strain on already scarce water resources as hydrogen production requires excessive amounts of water. Using the already overtaxed water supply for industrial use could also further impact safe access for residents who lack access to reliable and clean water supplies.
Pollution is another critical issue. Hydrogen plants that use steam methane reforming (SMR), a process reliant on natural gas, release harmful by-products such as carbon dioxide, worsening local air quality. These types of facilities might also risk contaminating water supplies even more through industrial runoff or accidental spills.
As of December 2024, Pixley’s tap water remains unsafe for consumption due to persistent contamination issues. Despite a $11.5 million settlement from pesticide manufacturers in 2021, the funds have been insufficient to fully address the contamination. Residents continue to rely on bottled water and filters for their daily needs.
