Sponsored by: Californians for Pesticide Reform, Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, Clean Water Action, Community Water Center, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, and Latino Issues Forum
Action Alert: Stop Industrial
Agriculture from Poisoning our Water!
The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board has failed to protect our drinking water supplies by waiving all groundwater protection requirements for irrigated agriculture.
Irrigation water seeping off fields contains a toxic mix of fertilizers and pesticides. As a result, our groundwater is the worst polluted in the State. More than 40,000 people in Central Valley communities each year are exposed to unsafe and illegal levels of contaminants in their drinking water. Today over 20 percent of all community systems in Tulare County cannot meet basic safe drinking water laws.
We pay while they pollute!
While irrigators are given a green light to pollute, small, rural communities have to pay for bottled water and the cost for drilling new wells or treatment technology. Because these sources of contaminants have remained unregulated, residents in the Central Valley have to pay some of the highest proportional water rates in the state for undrinkable water.
Tell the State and Regional Water Board that they must act now to protect our communities’ drinking water supplies! Use the attached letter or write your own!
· Write to the Board by noon on September 4th to:
Ryan Maughan, Division of Water Quality
State Water Resources Control Board
1001 I Street, 15th Floor Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: (916) 341-5584
E-mail comments should be sent to rmaughan@waterboards.ca.gov.
Please also indicate in the subject line, “Comment Letter – September 13, 2007 Irrigated Lands Program Joint Workshop.” (Please fax us a copy of your letter at 559-733-8219.)
· Join us at a Public Workshop with the State and Regional Boards on September 13, 2007 at 12 noon at:
City of Clovis Council Chambers
1033 Fifth Street
For more information, contact: Laurel Firestone or Susana De Anda
Community Water Center (559) 733-0219 / (559) 789-7245