Noticiero Latino: Wastewater in California

The state of California faces major water challenges due to water contaminants in some regions, particularly in the Central Valley, as well as poor infrastructure that does not provide clean drinking water free of substances that harm residents.

Currently, some civil groups in California have sued the State Water Resources Control Board for failing to protect rivers and wetlands from toxic contamination.

In this regard, Marisol Aguilar, Deputy Director of California Rural Legal Assistance-CRLA, explains what the arguments are in this lawsuit.

She also affirms that the state has shown little confidence in the defense of the waters, thus harming the communities that need more protection, let’s listen again to Marisol Aguilar.

For her part, Mayra Hernandez, Community Organizer for the Community Water Center in Watsonville CA, warns that widespread nitrate pollution in the Central Coast region endangers low-income rural coastal and fishing communities.

In addition, he said that the population thinks that boiling the water can be decontaminated, but this is not so, said Mayra Hernandez, Community Organizer of the Community Water Center in Watsonville, CA.

In this sense, Ileana Miranda, general director of the San Jerardo Cooperative in Salinas, CA; talks about the impact that is experienced in her localities, she herself suffered a family loss due to this toxicity in the water.

So the organizations demand that the California authorities take the reins and stop the excessive application of nitrate fertilizers and toxic substances in agricultural fields because they cause water contamination and damage the health of communities and especially the population with fewer resources.

This Dispatch is part of the series “Cuando se seca el Arroyo”. Supported in part by the Walton Family Foundation.