Their Water is Unwell
By Carolyn Day
Is this water safe?
What sounds like a basic enough question rarely has a simple answer. Prior to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948, which later was amended to become the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972, there was little to no guarantee that the water people were consuming in the United States was safe and wouldn’t result in adverse health effects. The Clean Water Act and its subsequent amendments set regulations for all known contaminants in water based on the concentrations deemed acceptable for human consumption.
However, these regulations only go so far as to regulate surface water sources and leaves groundwater and well water largely unregulated. For groundwater and well water, the owners of a well are responsible for its regulation and testing. But without regular testing people still assume their water is safe when it could be contaminated.
For many people in the San Joaquin Valley in California, wells are the sole source of water. In recent years, these areas have been experiencing an increase in numbers of illnesses associated with the consumption of contaminated drinking water. However, as small, rural, low-income communities, they receive little support from the state government to investigate the source of the problem. In light of this lack of governmental support, the Community Water Center (CWC) has rallied to make the community’s voice heard and their concerns addressed.
Founded in 2006 by Laurel Firestone and Susana De Anda, the Community Water Center works to ensure “all communities have access to safe, clean, and affordable water” by developing community-driven water solutions in the San Joaquin Valley and providing a voice to historically underrepresented communities. As the co-founder and co-director, Laurel uses her legal knowledge from Harvard Law School and her experience in international environmental justice to advocate for communities in the San Joaquin Valley.
In January 2016, Laurel was named “one of nine most influential people in California water policy by Environment & Energy Publishing.” She points out that the honor is “a bit ridiculous” because she wouldn’t have earned it without the full support of the CWC. In her mind, her recognition reflects the success of the CWC. This success, she believes, can be attributed to the CWC’s willingness to work with communities directly every step of the way. With the community’s full support behind them, the CWC’s efforts cannot be easily dismissed.
Currently, Laurel and the CWC are working to establish a sustainable fund for the Human Right to Water Bill, which passed in the state legislature in 2012. The Bill outlines that everyone should have access to clean, safe drinking water. However, even though the state legislature has engaged with this bill, acquiring the two-thirds vote needed to pass it is quite difficult. But the act still requires sustainable funds for implementation.
Laurel and her team remain hopeful, although they expressed concern for the impacts of recent decisions by the federal administration regarding environmental regulations by the US EPA. The communities served by the CWC are frontline communities to a whole host of problems and directly experience the negative effects of the new administration's policies directly. Fortunately, California possesses the governmental power to defend its residents from harmful policies, and there are people like Laurel and others at the CWC who willingly work to serve them.
While serving the San Joaquin Valley community, Laurel also joined the Community Stakeholder Advisory Committee (CSTAC) of the UC Davis Environmental Health Science Center (EHSC). Through this membership, Laurel has not only connected with and learned about environmental health science at UC Davis, but has formed beneficial connections with other community groups and agency officials. She finds it amazing that just by participating they can have research performed with their community in mind and connected with researchers by the EHSC’s Community Outreach and Engagement Core (COEC). Laurel is also appreciative and excited that as a member she has learned how to develop projects with both communities and researchers in mind and ensure each side is satisfied.
Through her CSTAC membership, Laurel and the CWC has connected with Dr. Swee Teh and together they have developed a project to look at the effects of contaminated ground water using fish as an animal model. The hope is for the project to determine whether the community’s well water contains contaminants that could have adverse health effects and determine whether the community should begin advocating for municipal water. However, Laurel expressed concerns about understanding animal models and the results of Dr. Teh’s study. Animal models aren’t easy for most people— including Laurel and her team— to understand and interpret. It is important that the CWC understand the study’s findings if they are going to use them to lobby for policy change.
To address this concern, the EHSC’s Community Outreach and Engagement Core is organizing an Academy Day on March 21st to provide community members with an opportunity to learn about and see first-hand the animal models being used by Dr. Teh’s research team. This will enable Laurel and her staff to better understand the use of animal models and explain results to the community.
Laurel is excited to be a part of this research with Dr. Teh. Laurel and the CWC have worked closely with Dr. Teh and his team from concept development to proposal development and completion, and Laurel appreciates Dr. Teh for keeping her and the CWC included. She expressed that this level of collaboration, in which community groups and researchers have equal power in the scientific process, is rare. She feels that the collaborative elements of this project can be attributed to Dr. Karen Andrade from the Community Outreach and Engagement Core. Karen helped to connect them the CWC with Dr. Teh, and has acted as a bridge between them to translate the needs of the researchers to the community and the needs of the community to the researchers. Laurel believes the development of this project would not be possible without Karen’s work as a connecting force.
Laurel hopes the project will be able to address the concerns of the people of the San Joaquin Valley who experience negative health effects but are unable to ask if their water is safe. Although the project cannot definitely say what impacts multiple pollutants at minimum levels have on human health, it would provide insights into how human health is affected by contaminants in water and advance understanding by communities and policymakers.
Although there is a chance that the project will not provide the results the community is expecting, Laurel does not view this to be much a concern. This project is the first time the CWC is working directly with environmental health researchers, so regardless of the outcome, she views it as a positive learning experience.
What sounds like a basic enough question rarely has a simple answer. Prior to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948, which later was amended to become the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972, there was little to no guarantee that the water people were consuming in the United States was safe and wouldn’t result in adverse health effects. The Clean Water Act and its subsequent amendments set regulations for all known contaminants in water based on the concentrations deemed acceptable for human consumption.
However, these regulations only go so far as to regulate surface water sources and leaves groundwater and well water largely unregulated. For groundwater and well water, the owners of a well are responsible for its regulation and testing. But without regular testing people still assume their water is safe when it could be contaminated.
For many people in the San Joaquin Valley in California, wells are the sole source of water. In recent years, these areas have been experiencing an increase in numbers of illnesses associated with the consumption of contaminated drinking water. However, as small, rural, low-income communities, they receive little support from the state government to investigate the source of the problem. In light of this lack of governmental support, the Community Water Center (CWC) has rallied to make the community’s voice heard and their concerns addressed.
Founded in 2006 by Laurel Firestone and Susana De Anda, the Community Water Center works to ensure “all communities have access to safe, clean, and affordable water” by developing community-driven water solutions in the San Joaquin Valley and providing a voice to historically underrepresented communities. As the co-founder and co-director, Laurel uses her legal knowledge from Harvard Law School and her experience in international environmental justice to advocate for communities in the San Joaquin Valley.
In January 2016, Laurel was named “one of nine most influential people in California water policy by Environment & Energy Publishing.” She points out that the honor is “a bit ridiculous” because she wouldn’t have earned it without the full support of the CWC. In her mind, her recognition reflects the success of the CWC. This success, she believes, can be attributed to the CWC’s willingness to work with communities directly every step of the way. With the community’s full support behind them, the CWC’s efforts cannot be easily dismissed.
Currently, Laurel and the CWC are working to establish a sustainable fund for the Human Right to Water Bill, which passed in the state legislature in 2012. The Bill outlines that everyone should have access to clean, safe drinking water. However, even though the state legislature has engaged with this bill, acquiring the two-thirds vote needed to pass it is quite difficult. But the act still requires sustainable funds for implementation.
Laurel and her team remain hopeful, although they expressed concern for the impacts of recent decisions by the federal administration regarding environmental regulations by the US EPA. The communities served by the CWC are frontline communities to a whole host of problems and directly experience the negative effects of the new administration's policies directly. Fortunately, California possesses the governmental power to defend its residents from harmful policies, and there are people like Laurel and others at the CWC who willingly work to serve them.
While serving the San Joaquin Valley community, Laurel also joined the Community Stakeholder Advisory Committee (CSTAC) of the UC Davis Environmental Health Science Center (EHSC). Through this membership, Laurel has not only connected with and learned about environmental health science at UC Davis, but has formed beneficial connections with other community groups and agency officials. She finds it amazing that just by participating they can have research performed with their community in mind and connected with researchers by the EHSC’s Community Outreach and Engagement Core (COEC). Laurel is also appreciative and excited that as a member she has learned how to develop projects with both communities and researchers in mind and ensure each side is satisfied.
Through her CSTAC membership, Laurel and the CWC has connected with Dr. Swee Teh and together they have developed a project to look at the effects of contaminated ground water using fish as an animal model. The hope is for the project to determine whether the community’s well water contains contaminants that could have adverse health effects and determine whether the community should begin advocating for municipal water. However, Laurel expressed concerns about understanding animal models and the results of Dr. Teh’s study. Animal models aren’t easy for most people— including Laurel and her team— to understand and interpret. It is important that the CWC understand the study’s findings if they are going to use them to lobby for policy change.
To address this concern, the EHSC’s Community Outreach and Engagement Core is organizing an Academy Day on March 21st to provide community members with an opportunity to learn about and see first-hand the animal models being used by Dr. Teh’s research team. This will enable Laurel and her staff to better understand the use of animal models and explain results to the community.
Laurel is excited to be a part of this research with Dr. Teh. Laurel and the CWC have worked closely with Dr. Teh and his team from concept development to proposal development and completion, and Laurel appreciates Dr. Teh for keeping her and the CWC included. She expressed that this level of collaboration, in which community groups and researchers have equal power in the scientific process, is rare. She feels that the collaborative elements of this project can be attributed to Dr. Karen Andrade from the Community Outreach and Engagement Core. Karen helped to connect them the CWC with Dr. Teh, and has acted as a bridge between them to translate the needs of the researchers to the community and the needs of the community to the researchers. Laurel believes the development of this project would not be possible without Karen’s work as a connecting force.
Laurel hopes the project will be able to address the concerns of the people of the San Joaquin Valley who experience negative health effects but are unable to ask if their water is safe. Although the project cannot definitely say what impacts multiple pollutants at minimum levels have on human health, it would provide insights into how human health is affected by contaminants in water and advance understanding by communities and policymakers.
Although there is a chance that the project will not provide the results the community is expecting, Laurel does not view this to be much a concern. This project is the first time the CWC is working directly with environmental health researchers, so regardless of the outcome, she views it as a positive learning experience.