EPA And Lawmakers Call Lack of Clean Drinking Water Unacceptable
- By Amy Quinton
The EPA and lawmakers say California needs to do more to provide communities with safe drinking water.
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Thursday, June 06, 2013
Map of Proposed Clean Drinking Water Projects
The Environmental Protection Agency says California is violating the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The EPA says the state’s Department of Public Health has failed to spend nearly a half billion dollars in federal money to provide safe drinking water.
It’s estimated the state will have to spend 40 billion dollars over the next two decades to fix the problem.
Some lawmakers are outraged by what they see as a bureaucratic nightmare within the Department of Public Health.
SPRINGFIELD STRUGGLES TO PAY
Marta Saldibar, her husband and son have lived in the tiny community of Springfield in the Salinas Valley for six years.
In that time, she’s paid her monthly water bill. Then she’s paid close to $100 a month for bottled water.
Her well water, like that of her neighbors, has a nitrate contamination level six times higher than what is safe to drink.
“I just think it’s unfair that because we live in a poor neighborhood we have to wait all this time to get the water that we should have,” says Saldibar. Read more
The Environmental Protection Agency says California is violating the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The EPA says the state’s Department of Public Health has failed to spend nearly a half billion dollars in federal money to provide safe drinking water.
It’s estimated the state will have to spend 40 billion dollars over the next two decades to fix the problem.
Some lawmakers are outraged by what they see as a bureaucratic nightmare within the Department of Public Health.
SPRINGFIELD STRUGGLES TO PAY
Marta Saldibar, her husband and son have lived in the tiny community of Springfield in the Salinas Valley for six years.
In that time, she’s paid her monthly water bill. Then she’s paid close to $100 a month for bottled water.
Her well water, like that of her neighbors, has a nitrate contamination level six times higher than what is safe to drink.
“I just think it’s unfair that because we live in a poor neighborhood we have to wait all this time to get the water that we should have,” says Saldibar. Read more
