Cinthya Perez calls Scott Houston her angel. Since she ran out of water two years ago, Houston has been making deliveries to her home in Madera, in the valley basin north of Fresno. At first, it cost her $250 for each 2,000-gallon delivery, but Houston gave her a break and she now pays $200. For her family of seven, each delivery lasts about a week…
News
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The water vanished from Olivia Vargas’ modest East Porterville home on an ordinary morning as she was rinsing her breakfast dishes. It left Yolanda Serrato’s house just as suddenly, sputtering, then stopping, as she held a garden hose. Soon, the faucets at Iglesia Emmanuel went dry as parishioners tried to clean up after Sunday services.
Ten miles away, Ron and Cheryl Perine poured two glasses of water to drink — and watched in disbelief as sand settled to the bottom.
“It was devastating,” said Cheryl Perine, 67, whose well has supported her family, a few dogs and a small flock of chickens for 38 years. “You always think it’s not going to happen to you.
“It’s like living in the Dust Bowl.”
As California struggles through the drought, the first to suffer are rural residents with shallow private wells and limited incomes…
Arvin residents questioned state officials Saturday on the potential of another toxic gas leak occurring in Kern County, such as the one that caused the evacuation of about three dozen people.
A public meeting was held at 10 a.m. in the Arvin Veteran’s Hall, at 414 4th Ave., after officials told the evacuees on Friday night that test results showed the homes were safe.
The residents from eight Nelson Court homes had been evacuated since March 18, when high levels of toxic gas from an oil company’s pipeline were found in the homes…
Thirty years after the Bhopal pesticide catastrophe killed more than 25,000 people, advocates in the health, environmental and workers’ rights sectors are calling on Governor Jerry Brown to protect California’s children by phasing out a toxic pesticide linked to developmental delays and IQ loss…
People in the San Joaquin Valley have breathed unhealthy levels of ozone on more days than any place in the country — more than Southern California in the South Coast Air Basin…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to strengthen ozone pollution levels to within a range of 65 to 70 parts per billion. The current national standard is set at 75 parts per billion.
“Bringing ozone pollution standards in line with the latest science will clean up our air,” says EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy…
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that it is recommending a more stringent federal smog (ozone) standard for ambient air quality. Based upon an analysis of the latest scientific research on the effects of ozone on human health and the environment, EPA is proposing to lower the 8-hour standard from its current level of 75 parts per billion (ppb) to somewhere in the range of 65 – 70 ppb. EPA is also considering lowering the limit to a level as low as 60 ppb…
Federal leaders moved Wednesday toward a stricter threshold for summertime air pollution, dramatically pushing the cleanup in the country’s two worst air basins — the San Joaquin Valley and the South Coast Air Basin in Southern California.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed an ozone standard between 65 and 70 parts per billion, lowering it from 75 parts per billion. The Valley led the nation in days above the old standard this year with 99 exceedances. Southern California had 93…
An early November pollution siege left people coughing, sneezing, rubbing their eyes and scratching at rashes. Strangely, it started with the first real storm of autumn in the San Joaquin Valley, not a cloud of fireplace soot.
The lung-tingling eight days caused patient loads to increase up to 30%, say allergists and other doctors. It kicked off the Valley’s most dangerous air pollution season — November through the end of February — when fireplace soot, diesel specks and chemical debris can hang in the air for weeks at a time…
Telecommunications giant AT&T agreed to a $51.8 million settlement with the State of California to resolve charges that employees at hundreds of its California facilities illegally disposed of hazardous waste and other materials for nine years. The settlement was jointly announced yesterday by California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris and Alameda County District Attorney Nancy E. O’Malley. This is the first enforcement action in California against a telecommunications company for its management of electronic waste.
Several of the facilities are located in the San Joaquin Valley, including three here in Bakersfield…