A report released today highlights how widespread unsafe drinking water is in California—particularly in schools.
Between 2003 and 2014, over 900 schools in the state may have provided water that was contaminated with arsenic or bacteria. That’s according to the Community Water Center, a non-profit advocacy group based in Sacramento. The report combined publicly available data on water quality violations with the number of schools served by those systems.
In the Central Valley, unsafe water appears to impact at least one in five schools. In the Tulare Lake region, it could be higher than one in three. For now, these numbers are estimates because the state doesn’t comprehensively monitor water quality in schools. The center’s Jenny Rempel says that’s concerning.
"State agencies don’t currently have access to sufficient information to assess the magnitude of the problem because they’re not monitoring and tracking it," she says. "Thus, state agencies are unable to ensure that children have safe drinking water at school."
The group is currently lobbying for more funding for safe drinking water in Governor Brown’s next state budget.
