Public health crisis looms as California identifies 600 communities at risk of water-system failures
A new report puts into focus for the first time the scope of the state’s drinking-water problems and what it will take to fix them.
Image Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
A familiar scene has returned to California: drought. Two counties are currently under emergency declarations, and the rest of the state could follow.
It was only four years ago when a winter of torrential rain finally
wrestled the state out of its last major drought, which had dragged on
for five years and left thousands of domestic wells coughing up dust.
A familiar scene has returned to California: drought. Two counties are currently under emergency declarations, and the rest of the state could follow.
It was only four years ago when a winter of torrential rain finally wrestled the state out of its last major drought, which had dragged on for five years and left thousands of domestic wells coughing up dust.
That drinking-water crisis made national headlines and helped shine a light on another long-simmering water crisis in California: More than 300 communities have chronically unsafe drinking water containing contaminants that can come with serious health consequences, including cancer. The areas hardest hit are mostly small, agricultural communities in the San Joaquin and Salinas valleys, which are predominantly Latino and are often also places classified by the state as “disadvantaged.” Unsafe water in these communities adds to a list of health and economic burdens made worse by the ongoing pandemic.
Westchester County Federal Legislative Requests sent to Washington Written by Westchester County
County Executive Latimer has sent his federal legislative requests to the federal delegation that represents Westchester County
Westchester County Executive George Latimer has sent his federal legislative requests to the federal delegation that represents Westchester County. The priorities were compiled by the Westchester County Department of Intergovernmental Relations under Latimer’s leadership. Department of Intergovernmental Relations Director Steve Bass led the team along with Deputy Director Ellen Hendrickx and Intergovernmental Relations Aide Kyle McIntyre.
While there are a number of federal priorities, the top priority for the Latimer Administration is the repeal of the SALT tax cap. The law now caps the SALT deduction at $10,000, resulting in double taxation and raised taxes on thousands of middle-class families in Westchester who depended on that deduct
Tonnes of toxic waste collected from British municipal dumps is being sent illegally to Africa in flagrant breach of this country’s obligation to ensure its rapidly growing mountain of defunct televisions, computers and gadgets are disposed of safely.
Hundreds of thousands of discarded items, which under British law must be dismantled or recycled by specialist contractors, are being packaged into cargo containers and shipped to countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, where they are stripped of their raw metals by young men and children working on poisoned waste dumps.
In a joint investigation by
The Independent, Sky News, and Greenpeace, a television that had been broken beyond repair was tracked to an electronics market in Lagos, Nigeria, after being left at a civic amenity site in Basingstoke run by Hampshire Country Council. Under environmental protection laws It was classified as hazardous waste and should never have left the UK.