Right now I'm going to go fill up my water jugs.
I usually do it once a week. You know, this is one
of many water stations that we have
due to poor water quality in our city.
Kern County has a history of violations
when it comes to safe drinking water.
That is something that scares me
and scares my community as well.
I started hearing about the water having arsenic
probably around 12 years ago.
I got very worried because then I started noticing
people were complaining about hair loss,
about skin issues, stomach pain.
We believe it's linked to the arsenic in the water.
Another chemical would be the 1,2,3-TCP.
And what I know about this chemical is that it also,
it can cause cancer.
What they told us is that we should not take long showers
or steamy showers due to this contaminant in the water.
- People trust the regulatory agencies
in the government to provide them
with clean and healthy, safe drinking water.
However, not all communities are created equal.
- I've been studying drinking water for about 10 years.
And what Flint really brought home for me
was that there could be a relationship
between race and income and drinking water violations.
And so what I really wanted to do was try to understand
the relationship between those things.
- I was interested in this research
because our communities need this
to better articulate the challenges that they have.
- I pulled data from the Safe Drinking Water Act
to determine where violations were happening
throughout the United States.
One of the major findings of our study
is that drinking water protections
are not fairly distributed across all communities.
Our analysis found that a number of communities
shouldered a heavier burden: communities of color,
low-income communities,
and communities that don't have access
to adequate housing and transportation options.
- There are more than 3,000 counties in the United States,
and we found that 400 of those,
race was a factor with respect to the water issue.
That's big for us. That shows
that race significantly matters.
- Thinking about the problem as a scientist,
I was shocked to see
that there was a statistically significant relationship
between the social factors we studied
and drinking water violations.
As a black woman, though, I wasn't surprised
to see that the relationship existed.
We know that the course of history has shown
that there are certain populations that are marginalized,
and it isn't surprising
that communities that are already overburdened
by so many other things in their environment
are also overburdened by this.
- I decided to stop using tap water
for boiling my beans, cooking, many years ago,
due to learning about my neighbors dying of cancer.
My water bill ranges from $100, $120 a month.
Besides that, I have to purchase water.
I'll be spending around $68 to $70 a month.
It makes me feel mad. Mad because I'm paying for water
that's contaminated. I'm a community organizer.
I work for Lideres Campesinas
and I also educate residents on different issues.
And most of them have concerns
about access to safe drinking water.
Our children won't be able to live a healthy, quality life
if we don't fight for all these issues.
This community is mostly farmworkers,
low-income and Spanish-speaking.
It's challenging for them to attend to meetings, workshops,
or the water board, and it's unfair
because they don't need to be spending their time
doing all this advocacy when they deserve
and they have the right for safe drinking water.
Our communities are mostly Latino,
African-American communities, and I believe
that that's one reason why there are so many violations
compared to other counties in California.
We have many environmental hazards.
There's the agriculture, the pesticides,
the oil and gas industry.
Then the dairy farms that create a lot of dust, odors.
Policies should be in place.
You know, we shouldn't be exposed
to so many contaminants that's affecting our health.
- My hope is that this report acts as a way to support
and highlight the experiences of community members
across the country.
People like Elizabeth Martinez that can't drink her water
and has to go somewhere to purchase water
even though she's paying her bills.
- We are holding the solutions
and have been for a very long time.
There has been an absence of political will
to make sure that a portion of this country
are able to access clean water, access clean air,
and live on clean land.
- I believe we have to work harder to get our voices heard.
Safe drinking water should be a right.
Water is life. You know, we shouldn't be paying
our high bills for something that's going to kill us.
- At the end of the day, race matters
when it comes to environmental injustices,
and we must do something about it. We must.
(mellow music)