Living in an impoverished agricultural community of numerous
roads and lush citrus orchards in California have learned a harsh life lesson, “don’t
drink the water” because it is contaminated with harmful levels of nitrate. In
the small town of Seville, the population has been plagued by contaminated
drinking water for decades. Chemical fertilizers, animal wastes, and pesticides
have infiltrated aquifers, seeping into the groundwater and eventually into the
tap. The residents must pay double the amount normally paid for water simply
because the water they have is no good for the normal and everyday uses we are
used to such as drinking, showering and brushing teeth. Even at the schools children cannot drink the
drinking water because it is “foggyish” and undrinkable. The schools must pay
extra money for water rather than other things such as laptops for the students
to use for learning. Many people believe that clean water should be a right and
in order to grant this right is for the government to grant $1.3 million to
construct a treatment plant. However, the treatment plant caused the price of
water to skyrocket, which made no one want to buy the water, making it
useless. It seems the only solutions are
regional fixes, not federal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/us/tainted-water-in-california-farmworker-communities.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=earth
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