School district's new water system may be example for contaminated rural areas
The long and ultimately successful journey to clean drinking water for a rural school district west of Bakersfield may point to a path forward for other remote areas dealing with groundwater contaminated by nitrates and the carcinogen 1,2,3-TCP.
Instead of the bottled water they have relied on for almost a decade, students of the Rio Bravo-Greeley Union School District were able to use the district's drinking fountains last week — many for the first time — thanks to state grants and proceeds from a lawsuit the district brought against companies found liable for the 1,2,3-TCP pollution.
Challenges RBG faced along the way are becoming frustratingly common in the Central Valley, from the contamination itself to the district's inability to consolidate with a larger water district nearby and the considerable expense of maintaining the new treatment system. The state's hope now is that communities in similar situations pool their resources to achieve similar results.
"This is an emerging issue in sort of these rural areas," said Jackie Carpenter, director of media relations for the State Water Resources Control Board.
Deliveries of bottled water began in 2015 when RBG, an elementary through middle school district with about 1,200 students and staff, first learned of nitrate contamination in its water. While the typical response would be to have the district join with a larger water district, none was available nearby.
The state immediately gave the district $144,000 to cover the cost of 5-gallon jugs of clean water and paper cups for three years. Meanwhile, a state grant of about $68,000 funded work on a point-of-use filtration system that was supposed to have solved the nitrates problem by mid-2017.
The discovery of 1,2,3-TCP in the water upended the project in 2018. That same year, the state Department of Water Resources gave the University of California, Davis $5 million from 2002's Proposition 50 to study the feasibility of full-scale nitrate treatment systems. RBG was selected to host a pilot project for the university's work.
Partly because RBG's system was part of a pilot project, state officials said they were unable to cite a final price for the entire project. They noted some of the grants involved came from the Department of Water Resources and some from the state water board's Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience program, estimated to have distributed $62 million among 224 schools with about 35,000 students and staff members.
The State Water Resources Control Board has since given RBG $178,000 to help cover three years of ongoing expenses such as a contracted operator, supplies, lab fees, brine waste disposal costs and training for staff who help with daily tasks related to the treatment system.
Carpenter said that one-time allotment came with the state's encouragement that RBG and other rural water systems in the area work together on hiring a visiting contractor to service the various treatment facilities all at once. She noted additional money for ongoing work may be available through various state water programs.
The new plant absorbs 1,2,3-TC using granular activated carbon that must be changed out periodically. Meanwhile, the system exchanges nitrate ions for chloride ions using a resin that must occasionally be recharged with a sodium chloride brine.
On Tuesday morning, RBG staff were joined by community members and government officials for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tour of the plant, according to a report by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools. Refreshments served included ice water from the new treatment system.
"Go drink the water. It's wonderful," said Phil Chandler, co-founder of Datumpin Inc., an engineering firm that worked on the project, KCSOS reported. "And all you trendy kids out there with your big water carriers that are about the size of a backpack, go fill them from the chilled stuff."
The report noted RBG pursued litigation against Shell and Dow Inc., and after RBG prevailed in court, it was able to fund treatment requirements not paid for by Proposition 50.
RBG Superintendent Jennifer Hedge said in a state news release the district is thrilled the facility is finally done.
"It has been a long journey," she stated, "but we now have regular, reliable and easy access to this necessary resource — safe drinking water."
