{"id":1574660,"date":"2022-07-27T16:00:54","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T20:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1574660"},"modified":"2022-07-27T16:00:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T20:00:57","slug":"newsoms-california-nearly-1-million-residents-lack-safe-drinking-water-audit-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newsoms-california-nearly-1-million-residents-lack-safe-drinking-water-audit-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom\u2019s California: Nearly 1 Million Residents Lack Safe Drinking Water, Audit Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnewsoms-california-nearly-1-million-residents-lack-safe-drinking-water-audit-shows%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1574660&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Nearly a million residents in Democratic governor Gavin Newsom\u2019s California are reportedly living at serious health risk from a lack of safe drinking water, and even Democrats are blasting the state government for its lassitude in dealing with the problem.<\/p>\n<p>Acting State Auditor Michael Tilden slammed the State Water Resources Control Board for what he viewed as its slowness in addressing the problem, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.auditor.ca.gov\/reports\/2021-118\/index.html?utm_source=CalMatters+Newsletters&#038;utm_campaign=0d6a0f72d3-WHATMATTERS&#038;utm_medium=email&#038;utm_term=0_faa7be558d-0d6a0f72d3-151758227&#038;mc_cid=0d6a0f72d3&#038;mc_eid=9d3aa00abf#section6\">surmising in his audit<\/a> that over 900,000 Californians had a greater risk of developing cancer and liver and kidney problems because their water systems fell short of water quality standards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe State Water Board has funding available to help these failing systems improve the quality of their drinking water,\u201d Tilden wrote. \u201cNonetheless, the board has generally demonstrated a lack of urgency in providing this critical assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tilden asserted that the average amount of time it took for water systems to finish their applications for the funding and for the State Water Board to review them and award funding had \u201cnearly doubled from an average of 17\u00a0months in 2017 to 33\u00a0months in 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Citing the Board\u2019s \u201clack of urgency to provide needed assistance to failing water systems,\u201d Tilden pointed to the massive drought threatening the state, declaring, \u201cAs their water quality worsens, or their water dries up altogether, struggling water systems will urgently need funding and solutions from the State Water Board. Any delays will expose even more Californians to unsafe drinking water,\u201d per Rachel Becker and Emily Hoeven of <a href=\"https:\/\/calmatters.org\/newsletters\/whatmatters\/2022\/07\/california-drinking-water-safe\/\">CalMatters<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore than 370 of the State\u2019s water systems, serving nearly a million Californians, exceed the maximum contaminant levels for substances that are harmful to human\u00a0health,\u201d the audit stated. \u201cMore than 150 of these systems have been failing for at least five years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tilden\u2019s audit showed over two-thirds of the state\u2019s failing water systems languished in poor communities, thus forcing the poorer citizens to \u201cpurchase more expensive bottled water for drinking and cooking purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tilden cited the Water Board\u2019s \u201ccumbersome\u201d application process as a cause of the delay in fixing the water problem. One respondent to CalMatters called the process \u201ca nightmare,\u201d adding, \u201cno one \u2026 can decipher what is required.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Water Board executive director Eileen Sobeck responded to the audit by claiming since Newsom signed SB 200 in July 2019, \u201cthe SAFER program has reduced the population impacted by failing water systems from 1.6 million people to 934,000 \u2014 a 40 % reduction in the first three years of a 10-year program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Democratic state Sen. Melissa Hurtado harshly criticized the state, firing:<\/p>\n<p><em>Earlier this year, I called for the State Water Board to be abolished and revamped, but it is clear that the situation is only getting worse. The State Water Board is an antiquated governing body with no oversight, and it appears incapable of addressing our urgent water situation. We should declare an emergency situation and provide all the funding and resources necessary to urgently address our faulty water systems.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nearly a million residents in Democratic governor Gavin Newsom\u2019s California are reportedly living at serious health risk from a lack of safe drinking water, and even Democrats are blasting the state government for its lassitude in dealing with the problem. Acting State Auditor Michael Tilden slammed the State Water Resources Control Board for what he &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":868911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1574660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1574660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1574660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1574660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1574660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1574660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}