Sabalow, R. (2018, June 22). 360,000 Californians have unsafe drinking water. Are you one of them? Retrieved November 16, 2018, from https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article211474679.htmlg

 

Researchers at UC Davis are committing their time to studying unsafe water drinking and have found it to go hand-in-hand with another issue: poverty. Farmworkers and other rural residents tend to reside in isolated communities that source their water from districts unable to manage contamination. In addition to health risks, San Joaquin Valley residents have more expensive water bills and have to buy expensive bottled water to avoid contaminated water. The high levels of nitrates found in the water can reduce oxygen levels in newborns’ blood, suffocating them through a disorder called “blue baby syndrome.” The high level of Nitrates can also be linked to various forms of cancer.

This relates to Environmental Science because one of the large issues relating to water in the San Joaquin Valley was when the drought occurred, causing desperate farmers to pump groundwater for irrigation. This lowered water tables throughout the region, bringing nitrates into contact with the intakes of communities’ wells. Pumping increased the amount of naturally occuring arsenic in the environment, which is one of the biggest water contaminants in California. This is extremely sad because this not only affects us humans but has a detrimental impact on wildlife, specifically marine animals.