A decade after the state of California recognized the human right to water, hundreds of thousands of residents still rely on drinking water that contains dangerous levels of contaminants. Many of them live in low income and rural areas that can't afford the necessary infrastructure to remove arsenic from drinking water.
A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and Virginia Tech is looking at how inmates in California may be affected by arsenic in the water.
The study looked at 20 years of water quality data from Kern Valley State Prison and the nearby Central Valley communities of Allensworth, McFarland and Delano. There were instances when the arsenic levels in the water supply exceeded regulatory limits.
Jenny Rempel is a graduate student in UC Berkeley's Energy and is the study's first author. There are ongoing structural challenges to realizing the basic human right to water on both sides of the prison walls.
A variety of cancers and other serious health concerns have been linked to long-term exposure to arsenic in drinking water. The maximum level of arsenic in the US was lowered in 2001. The standard was changed in early 2006
The purpose of the study was to better understand how disaggregated water quality data could be used to identify potential historic exposures to drinking water contaminants among inmates and non-inmates.
The study found that arsenic levels exceeded 10 ppb in all four communities over the past two decades. The California Division of Drinking Water didn't issue official violations when arsenic levels exceeded the 10 ppb limit.
"Although all four communities were meeting the federal arsenic standard at the end of our study period, we found persistent water injustices that reached across carceral boundaries."
In prisons and low-income communities there are still water issues.
The facility was built without any plans for arsenic removal. The average arsenic level at the prison was 20 ppb until the water treatment system was completed. Arsenic levels in the water supply occasionally spiked to more than 20 ppb even though the treatment system is in place.
Even though some of the early water quality data suggested the system would soon be out of compliance with the new arsenic standard, the prison was built without arsenic remediation plans. Thousands of people were likely to drink contaminated water until the treatment plant came online.
Residents of the surrounding communities can choose to drink bottled water or install home water filters to protect themselves from waterborne illnesses. Many low-income households can't afford to take these precautions, and small, low-income communities don't have the resources to build and maintain effective water treatment facilities.
A recent study shows that rural and low income communities are less likely to have access to safe drinking water. Historical disinvestment and regulatory failures are some of the causes that contribute to the water crises in urban areas. A lot of the communities without access to safe drinking water are also communities of color.
Water treatment utilities in lower income rural areas are more likely to be out of compliance because the funding for water treatment and supply provision and maintenance in the U.S. is expected to come primarily from residents. People living in lower income rural communities in the U.S. have disproportionately higher exposure to contaminated drinking water because some systems are out of compliance with EPA regulations.
Since the construction of new wells and well-head arsenic treatment facilities, the drinking water in Delano has never exceeded 10 ppb arsenic. Despite the addition of a new water treatment system, occasionally the arsenic levels exceed 10 ppb in the small town of McFarland. The arsenic standards are calculated annually and the system is currently meeting them.
Delano has received more funding than any other system, and they haven't had a single post-treatment sample above 10 ppb.
The small community of Allensworth doesn't have a treatment facility. The state subsidizes bottled water for the community when the water supply is out of compliance due to the fact that the town relies on water that is blended from two wells.
New and ongoing support is needed to ensure that water treatment facilities in low-income communities can be maintained and operated effectively, according to Rempel. Ensuring that everyone has access to clean drinking water is one of the benefits of new technologies.
To really deliver on the promise of the human right to water, we need to establish adequate technical assistance and other creative approaches to ensure that communities are able to successfully operate treatment systems
Isha Ray and Ziyi He of UC Berkeley are two of the additional study co- authors.
More information: The Human Right to Water: A 20-Year Comparative Analysis of Arsenic in Rural and Carceral Drinking Water Systems in California, Environmental Health Perspectives (2022). DOI: 10.1289/EHP10758 Journal information: Environmental Health Perspectives
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