After more than two decades, Kettleman City residents finally are seeing a huge reduction in truckloads of toxic waste passing through town on Highway 41. Strangely, that could be a bad thing.
Community activists are cheering the slowdown of loads to the West’s largest hazardous-waste landfill, 3.5 miles from town. They hope it stops completely.
But if the flow of toxic truckloads doesn’t pick up, Kettleman City might lose an $8 million chance to get healthy drinking water for its 1,500 residents.
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On a recent trip to Burma’s Shan State, I was taken to see a well that provided water for three different villages. Children covered with mud from the well run-off were trying desperately to obtain water for their families. It was a daunting task because only about a foot of water remained in the well and that water was filthy. The dearth was not a result of drought — Shan State had gotten plenty of rain. It was simply because the authorities had not cared enough to provide adequate access and a well-functioning retrieval system. This problem, the villagers told me, has lasted for years.
California and Shan State have almost nothing in common… except for a failure by authorities to take seriously the need for citizens to have adequate access to clean, affordable water.
The West’s largest hazardous-waste landfill is running out of room after four years of expansion attempts have been stymied by tragedy in nearby Kettleman City.
State authorities put the expansion on hold after community activists in 2009 reported a rash of birth defects in Kettleman City, implicating the landfill’s toxic burial ground 3.5 miles away.
The Valley Air Board sat ominously silent in the second week of July as smog levels throughout the San Joaquin Valley repeatedly violated health standards. Not a word of warning was issued as lung-scarring ozone clouds formed and spread. No emergency air alerts were issued, not even a simple request to drive less was made. Apparently, “Spare the Air” has become “We Just Don’t Care.”
As the California Air Resources Board’s pollution “bingo card” image shows, it was hard to find a safe place to breathe in our 24,000-square-mile garage that week. During the course of the week, every county had multiple violations, and for three days in a row, every one of the region’s 24 air pollution monitors recorded violations of the state or federal standards.
Host: Dolores Weller, CVAQ Associate Director
Guest: Bill Allayaud, California Director of Governmental Affairs for the Environmental Working Group (EWG) talks about Fracking in California and specifically trends in Kern County. We also covered key legislation and the latest report from EWG, California Regulators: See No Fracking, Speak no Fracking
On August 16th, community residents from across California will converge in Sacramento and send a strong message to decision-makers that all communities need clean energy, clean air, and good jobs. We are bringing together advocates, community-based organizations and residents from environmental justice communities across California for some exciting movement-building and advocacy opportunities:
A recent test on private water wells showed 70% had pollutants like uranium or nitrate.
Those are contaminants that could put health at risk.
The community water center held a meeting today to let people know what exactly they’re drinking.
Locals like to say that Easton is closer to Fresno than parts of Fresno, but as an unincorporated community seven miles south of downtown, residents relish its small-town ways.
“We don’t have the same commodities and resources, but we can hear the crickets at night and it’s peaceful and there are freedoms here,” said Sue Ruiz, who serves as the president of the Easton Community Services District.
A 2-square-mile enclave of about 665 homes, Easton has more than a half-dozen well-attended churches and two wide-lawned schools set against a backdrop of vineyards, almond orchards and two-lane roads. Chitchat with neighbors is easy and cordial – until the conversation turns to water, an issue that has divided neighbors and families who continue to debate whether Easton needs to move away from its system of private wells.