UC Berkeley researchers working on low-cost way to keep water safe in rural communities

Study found low-income areas more likely to be exposed to harmful levels of arsenic and other contaminants

by Olivia Wynkoop, Bay City News September 28, 2022September 27, 2022

Farmer and minister Dennis Hutson works on his farm in Allensworth, a small community of about 600 people in Tulare County that cannot afford its own water treatment facility and often must confront unhealthy levels of arsenic in its drinking water. UC Berkeley researchers are trying to develop a low-cost solution to help such rural communities maintain safe water supplies. (Photo by Adam Lau/Berkeley Engineering)

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley found that the drinking water at a state prison and its surrounding rural areas contained potentially dangerous levels of arsenic in recent years.

The study, published last week in Environmental Health Perspectives, looked at two decades worth of water quality data from Kern Valley State Prison and three nearby Central Valley communities — Allensworth, McFarland and Delano.

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