Fact Sheet 4

ENSTU 300: Critical Thinking & Communication in Environmental Studies

Water Contamination in the Central Valley
Maya Cota, Environmental Studies Program, California State University, Monterey Bay

Kerry Klein https://www.kvpr.org/programs/contaminated-dirty-water-californias-san-joaquin-valley

Introduction support recurring water testing in small

Lasting change related to water water systems, 2) plan to enforce the
quality in the San Joaquin Valley will equitable implementation of existing policy,
ultimately come from the government and 3) enforce improved leachate and runoff
agencies responsible for protecting and management systems from agricultural use
conserving resources. The policy-makers for regulating nutrient and pesticide
responsible for water quality in the San transport. Each policy option will be
Joaquin Valley will be responsible for the measured based on its ability to fulfill major
methods and timelines of remedying the goals for the San Joaquin Valley such as,
issues facing the community members of the economic feasibility, equitable action,
Valley. Varying factors have exacerbated drinking water protection, harm reduction,
the water quality crisis in the California, San pollution/nutrient reduction and agricultural
Joaquin Valley, thus the solution must take reform (Table 1).
them into account in order to make lasting
and feasible change. Some policy options Policy Option 1: Provide strict
that could contribute to solving this issue guidelines for and support recurring
include 1) providing strict guidelines for and
water quality testing in small water
systems
Federally mandated water
quality testing was not enforced until
the 1970’s after the ratification of the
Clean Water act. This act ensures that
water quality is monitored and kept to
federal standards; never exceeding the
permitted chemical concentration of
pollutants and/or toxins. Every water
system is responsible for testing their
water quality, often a responsibility
delegated to the water board in which
the system resides. However, the
government does not provide
additional funding for water systems in
rural areas that have less connections
to neighboring water systems and often
serve smaller populations (Balazs,
2012). With revised rules regarding
contaminant levels in water systems,
government agencies are not
considering the economic burden
compliance may have on these small
water systems (Balazs, 2012). Many of
these systems require what Balazs et al
(2012) refer to as a “joint burden
analysis” which takes into account the
ability a community has to comply
with water quality standards and the
impact exposure to these contaminants
has on them. The San Joaquin Valley
is home to 140 small water systems
which fail to comply with safe
drinking water standards and exceed
multiple maximum contaminant levels
(MCL’s). Knowing that small water
systems, and Community Water
Systems (CWS), which serve more
than 25 residents or have at least
fifteen service connections, historically
find themselves unable to comply with
these standards it is necessary to
provide them with the capacity to carry
out these measures (U.S. EPA, 2012).
Understanding that there is an
expectation for water systems to be in
compliance with the water quality
standards of both state and federal
governments it is prudent to provide
communities with the necessary tools
to uphold them. Providing strict
guidelines for and supporting water
quality testing in small water systems
is a viable policy recommendation to
ensure guidelines are met.
Policy Option 2: Plan to enforce the
equitable implementation of existing
policy
The existing policies including
the Clean Water Act and the Safe
Drinking Water Act aim to protect the
interests of corporations and the public
while upholding standards of health
and resource management. These
policies provide important precedent
for environmental
regulations and standards that concern
water quality. However, environmental
policies, such as these, often overlook
the ways in which they are providing
solutions that cannot equitably address
impacted communities. The San
Joaquin Valley is home to many racial
and ethnic minorities who are
disproportionately impacted by living
and health conditions, as well as,
having low economic standing (Balazs,
2011). In addition to fulfilling social
and economic characteristics
mentioned above, these communities
are often faced with the issue of
lacking healthcare services, making
treatment for water contamination
related illness less likely to be treated
(Balazs, 2011). Coupling these
communities and capacity to afford
mitigation strategies and ability to
pursue proper health intervention
related to water contamination, the
policies in place seem to perpetuate
these cycles of social environmental
impact (Balazs, 2011). The equitable
implementation of existing policy will
allow for disproportionately impacted
communities to thrive while
addressing the environmental issue at
hand. Using the concepts and
standards set in place by existing
policy, such as upholding contaminant
level standards, and adding elements
that breakdown socio-economic
barriers to being able to resolve these
issues within all impacted
communities will benefit the most
vulnerable. While implementing this
policy may be costly for the entities
fulfilling these regulations, the overall
human capital that will benefit from
them increases their ability to thrive.
When the communities being impacted
are alleviated of some existing burdens
caused by policies, such as the Clean
Water Act, they would gain the
capacity to take action and work to
manage water contamination from
within.
Policy Option 3: Enforce improved
leachate and runoff management
systems for agricultural use for
regulating pesticide and nutrient
transport
A major component of water
contamination in the San Joaquin
Valley is related to runoff and leachate
caused by agricultural land use. Some
forms of contaminants, such as
nitrates, go through a process called
attenuation turning it into nitrogen gas;
this does not affect the groundwater
source (Moore, 2011). However, with
the use of fertilizers on farmland being
so great, nitrates are not able to be
absorbed at the rate they are inputted
into the environment. Nitrate has the
potential to leach into the groundwater
and increase the level of contaminants
present in drinking water sources.
Enforcing improved leachate and
runoff management systems for the
agricultural sector requires an upshift
in action taken by the farmers
themselves.
The Irrigated Lands Regulatory
Program has begun to set in motion
action that will place standards upon
how to manage discharge from
irrigated lands. The program issues
waste discharge requirements that
include water quality monitoring of
receiving waters and corrections set in
place to solve irregularities as they
arise (California Water Boards,
Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program
2021). A solution for these
irregularities could be to include
vegetative barriers, woodchip
bioreactors and saturated buffers to
absorb excess nutrients passing
through the soil (EPA, The Sources
and Solutions: Agriculture). These
elements would require a budgetary
shift to add funding to support and
implement innovative techniques to
resolving water quality issues. Because
these practices are not required to be
included in the average grow
operations found in the valley the
federal government will need to
provide support for the smaller farms
that do not have the financial resources
to include these technologies
(California Water Boards, Irrigated
Lands Regulatory Program 2021).
Criteria Provi Enforce Plan
de improve to
strict d enfor
guidel leachate ce
 ines manage the
for ment equit
and systems able
suppo for impl
rt agricult emen
recurr ural use tatio
ing through n of
water bioreme existi
testin diation ng
g in and polic
small vegetati y
water ve
syste barriers
ms

Economi --- --- ---

c
feasibilit
y

Drinking +++ +++ +++

water
protectio
n

Equitabl +++ -/+ +++

e action

Pollution -/+ +++ -/+

/nutrient
reduction

Harm +++ +++ +++

reduction
(illness,
disease,
etc.)

Agricult -/+ +++ +++

ural
reform

Key: Strong: +++ Neutral: -/+ Weak: ---

Literature Cited
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1/us/california-central-valley-
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Mission + history. Community Water
Escriva-Bou, A., Gray, B., Green, S.,
Harter, T., Howitt, R., MacEwan,
D., & Seavy, N. (2017). Water
Stress and a Changing San Joaquin
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California. https://www.
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7EHR. Pdf.
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and environmental justice in the
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W8vs.
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https://www.communitywatercenter.
org/history.

Hanak, E., Escriva-Bou, A., Gray, B.,

Green, S., Harter, T., Jezdimirovic,
J., ... & Seavy, N. (2019). Water and
the future of the San Joaquin Valley.
Public Policy Institute of California,
100.

Lohan, T. (2017, July 14). Systemic

failure: Why 1 million californians
lack safe drinking water. Water.
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https://deeply.thenewhumanitarian.o
rg/water/articles/2017/07/05/systemi
c-failure-why-1-million-
californians-lack-safe-drinking-
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