It turns out that some parts of California could have dangerous drinking water and any people may not even know this. As of May 2018, the California Water Resources Control Board’s records show that over 266 water suppliers were not in compliance with drinking water standards. Unfortunately, most of the violations were in the rural agricultural regions of California. The counties with the most violations were Fresno, Kern, Madera, Stanislaus, and Tulare. Robert Brownwood, a deputy director for the State Water Resources Control Board, stated the following regarding the water systems,
In California, any supply system that supplies five or more homes is a public water system. There are many small water systems in agricultural lands where pesticides, chemicals and organic compounds are often found in the water.
It turns out that the testing of drinking water in many areas is done on an honor system. The water is sent routinely to labs across the state for monitoring and those that do not comply or are found to falsify tests could be fined. The regular testing is meant to regulate the type and level of contamination. Violations in the state water-supply systems are for things such as excessive amounts of uranium, arsenic and nitrates. Hopefully water suppliers in the state are able to be in compliance to make sure that drinking water is up to safe standards.
