Carolina Garcia found out three months ago that her family’s well had unsafe levels of nitrate and bacteria. She and her family of six live in a small neighborhood in Fresno County, in California’s San Joaquin, and they now use as much of their limited income as they can to buy bottled water.
And it’s not just private wells that are problematic. There are 300 community water systems in the state that face chronic water quality issues, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.
Becky Quintana lives in one of those communities – Seville, in Tulare County – where residents have been waiting nine years for safe drinking water.