Turning the Water into Water

 

Liberty Hill grantees have a way of drilling down to the nitty-gritty. And gritty's the word for the magnesium-laden brown water that comes from taps in Maywood.

The yucky stuff in your glass just has an image problem, according to outdated state standards--but recent research says that there are serious health concerns, particularly for children, linked to drinking high levels of manganese, which is what makes the water brown. And there are other contaminants present in levels above EPA standards, too. (At Environmental Working Group's site,  you can check the database for details about the tap water in Maywood--or in your neighborhood.)

So in upcoming months, Maywood members of Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (EJCW), will network with residents of Huntington Park, Cudahy and Bell to try to win more responsiveness from the mutual water companies serving the region.

In a metro area as vast as ours, it's hard sometimes to get your mind around how incredibly different access to the basics can be from neighborhood to neighborhood. There's been some attention paid lately to the "food deserts" of South L.A., where major grocery chains are mostly missing in action [click here for a recent NBC-TV report spurred by a survey from Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)], but the word on water is just beginning to trickle out.

"It’s sad but it’s true," says Miriam Torres, Southern California Program Director for Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, "that the cities with the  lowest median household income tend to have the highest numbers" of occasions when levels of contaminants exceed Environmental Protection Agency standards. In South L.A., these contaminants include not only manganese, but also other toxins from industrial pollution present in the groundwater.

"Water policy is very complicated," says Torres. Even if there has been an unsatisfactory test, "it doesn’t necessary mean it’s a violation or that they’ll close the well. They can test and test until it comes out okay. We have cities like Huntington Park where you have five contaminants that are regularly exceeding the limit."

Since where you live determines your water company, it also determines the quality of your water. In Southeast L.A., an outmoded system has made it hard for residents to get water companies to act. The area was once agricultural, and the water companies were set up by the landowners-- farmers.

But nowadays, the farms are gone, the population is dense and the mutual companies are cut off from the people they serve. The companies are not public systems and so the public can't participate in rate-setting; nor are they regulated private companies.  EJCW is a statewide coalition of more than 50 grassroots and intermediary organizations working for democratic water management and allocation in California. Its members in Southern California have focused on a variety of water issues.

"Over the next six months we have a group of people who are interested and want to develop a campaign. The idea is to form a regional coalition," says Torres, explaining that there are several small mutual water companies, each with different policies, but all delivering low-quality water. In January, some EJCW members will step up as candidates at board elections for Maywood Mutual Water Company #2.

Thirsty for more? Maywood community members show us what they're drinking in this video.  

 

 Can't see this video? Watch it on YouTube.
Read previous posts about Environmental Justice
Read previous posts about Liberty Hill's environmental work