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 Rural communities where residents rely on wells are at particular
risk, as contaminants in the groundwater become more concentrated
with less water available to dilute them, top state health officials
said at a legislative hearing on the drought.
"The drought has exacerbated existing conditions," said Mark Starr,
deputy director of the California Department of Public Health.
The state has helped about 22 of 183 communities identified last
year as reliant on contaminated groundwater to bring their supplies
into conformance with environmental guidelines, but the rest are
still building or preparing to build systems, he said.
The contamination warning comes days after President Barack Obama
announced nearly $200 million in aid for the parched state,
including $60 million for food banks to help people thrown out of
work in agriculture-related industries as farmers leave fields
unplanted and ranchers sell cattle early because the animals have no
grass for grazing.
The California Farm Bureau estimates the overall impact of idled
farmland will run to roughly $5 billion, from in direct costs of
lost production and indirect effects through the region's economy.
Last month, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of
emergency, as reservoir levels dipped to all-time lows with little
rain or snow in the forecast.
On Tuesday, the state's top public health officials said they were
targeting 10 communities for immediate relief, trucking in water
when necessary and helping to lay pipes connecting residents with
nearby public water systems.
Worst hit is the small city of Willits in the northern part of the
state, public health director Ron Chapman said. Also targeted for
priority help included tiny water systems throughout the state, one
so small it serves 55 people in a community listed simply as
Whispering Pines Apartments.
"Small drinking water systems are especially vulnerable to drought
conditions," the public health department said on its website. "They
have fewer customers, which can mean fewer options in terms of
resources like funding and infrastructure."
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STAGNANT POOLS, CONTAMINATED WELLS
Linda Rudolph, co-director for the Center for Climate Change and
Health in Oakland and a former state health official, said millions
of Californians rely on wells and other sources of groundwater where
the concentration of contaminants is growing because of dry
conditions.
"Many groundwater basins in California are contaminated, for example
with nitrates from over-application of nitrogen fertilizer or
concentrated animal feeding operations, with industrial chemicals,
with chemicals from oil extraction or due to natural contaminants
with chemicals such as arsenic," Rudolph said.
In addition, as dry conditions turn ponds and creeks into stagnant
pools, mosquitoes breed, and risk increases for the diseases they
carry, she said at the hearing. Residents with asthma and other lung
conditions are also at risk as dry conditions create dust.
The state's firefighters put out 400 blazes during the first three
weeks of January, normally the state's wettest season and its
slowest for wildfires, according to the California Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection.
"We are experiencing conditions right now that we would usually see
in August," its website quoted Chief Ken Pimlott as saying.
(Editing by Richard Borsuk)
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