Posts Tagged: Health

Survey: Water system consolidations improve water quality, infrastructure

UCCE specialist studying projects that help secure safe, reliable drinking water

“Nino, the water's not coming out right; something's going on with the well.”

Those words – from Michael Prado Sr.'s goddaughter – are reflective of longstanding water concerns in Monson, a rural community of about 100 people in Tulare County.

“I was one of those people who just used to turn the faucet on and expected the water to come on – I didn't know where it came from, or what was in it,” said Prado, a retired machine operator.

But during 29 years on the Community Services District (CSD) board of Sultana, a town four miles north of Monson, Prado became a self-described “water nerd” who learned about local water systems and the troubles faced by his neighbors. Monson historically has relied on private wells – some of which had high nitrate contamination levels. Then, during the drought of 2014-15, many of the wells ran dry and residents had to rely on bottled water or water tanks filled periodically by truck.

That's when Maria Herrera of Self-Help Enterprises, a community development organization serving the San Joaquin Valley, approached Prado about tying Monson into Sultana's water system that serves about 1,000 people, and giving Monson representation on the Sultana CSD board.

“I spoke to my board and it was a no-brainer,” said Prado, who has served as board president of the Sultana CSD for the past 14 years. “We share the school with Monson; it's the Monson-Sultana School – the school was actually in Monson before it came to Sultana, so our board felt the need was urgent. Our kids were in that community, and we thought, ‘You know what, let's bring them in.'”

The Sultana-Monson project – which included building new wells, laying piping and annexing Monson into the special district – was among those studied through a groundbreaking survey conducted by Kristin Dobbin, a University of California Cooperative Extension specialist in water justice policy and planning.

Dobbin is studying the consolidation of water systems, which can entail creating physical connections (such as pipelines) between water systems like in the Sultana-Monson project or administrative mergers that leave the physical infrastructure unchanged. About 250 consolidation projects have been completed across the state since 2015 – many of them in small, rural communities with tenuous access to safe and reliable drinking water.

“Water system consolidation has really become, in the last eight years, a top solution in California for addressing the chronic challenges facing smaller water systems,” said Dobbin, who is based at the UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management.

Smaller communities pursue economies of scale through mergers

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines a small water system as serving fewer than 3,300 people (with “very small” systems serving fewer 500), many of the systems undergoing a consolidation serve only a couple hundred residents. At such a small scale, maintaining a water system is prohibitively expensive – and smaller communities often lack the technical capability and staffing to install and adequately maintain the infrastructure.

Consolidation aims to create economies of scale for the participating systems, which can help ensure a better quality, more sustainable water supply for all community members. To better understand the motivations – and results – of consolidation projects (both completed and in-progress), Dobbin sent a survey to 434 water systems across California in early 2024.  

Remarkably, of the 78 systems that responded, 100% of them reported that their consolidation was a success, and 82% indicated their motivations for pursuing consolidation were fully addressed. The top reason for consolidating, reported by about two-thirds of respondents, was a desire to improve water quality – not surprising, given the state's tight regulation of water.

“There are lot of regulatory steps and potential penalties you're incurring, to incentivize you to get into compliance, so there's a lot of pressure for you to solve the problem,” said Dobbin, noting that common contamination concerns include arsenic, nitrates and 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP).

Significantly, 74% of respondents said they were seeing or expected water quality improvements from the consolidation effort. Dobbin also highlighted that half of the systems were motivated to pursue the mergers to address future water supply and quality issues, indicating managers' desire to secure their system from climate change-fueled impacts like drought and flooding.

“While we do see those regulatory pressures, we also see those forward-looking desires to reduce risk and futureproof systems – and that's a positive,” Dobbin said.

Funding processes, long timelines present challenges for water systems

In analyzing survey responses, Dobbin also noted some common roadblocks faced by the systems – namely, sufficient and timely funding for their efforts. Given California's emphasis on system consolidation as a preferred way to address water challenges, most of the projects received funding from the State Water Resources Control Board. But the bottleneck – and a challenge acknowledged by the board itself – has been the process of making those funds accessible to the systems.

It was certainly a hurdle for the Sultana-Monson project. Prado noted that, at the advice of their technical assistance provider, his community's CSD took out a bank loan to get their project started, rather than wait for the state to allocate the funds.

Despite the funding challenges and delays due to supply-chain disruptions during the pandemic, the pipeline connecting Monson to Sultana is complete and the system overall will benefit from more reliable and resilient water sources. But Monson residents are still waiting to connect their homes to the water system and to have their meters installed – nearly a full decade after the project was conceived.

Extended project timelines were another frequently mentioned challenge; for projects in implementation or construction, respondents reported that they already had been working on the consolidation for an average of nine years. One key factor to help expedite that work, Dobbin noted, is the role of technical assistance providers (TAPs) – often nonprofits or community-based organizations that help water systems apply for grants and fill out crucial paperwork, from financial statements to environmental impact reports.

“They're often an important lifeline for the smallest systems who don't have staff,” Dobbin explained. “A lot of our smaller water systems don't have a general manager or a secretary; they instead have community volunteers – so these technical assistance providers play an important role in filling those gaps.”

As just one example: 79% of water systems with TAP involvement reported improved water quality, whereas 56% of water systems without TAPs reported the same.

Researcher aims to take deeper look at system-consolidation case studies

Dobbin pointed out that system consolidation is not a one-size-fits-all panacea for water challenges in California, but just one among a variety of options that need to be tailored to each unique community and circumstance.

“Our survey provides really good evidence that consolidation is an important solution set in the state and that it is beneficial,” she said. “So next we need to do that contextualizing – figuring out in what cases it is the best fit.”

In addition to studying long-term effects of consolidation on household water rates (in most cases, there appears to be an increase in rates in the short term, likely due to the need to cover infrastructure upgrades), Dobbin will be taking a deeper dive into representative case studies during the next phase of her research.

While the survey respondents were overwhelmingly positive about their consolidation projects, Dobbin suspects there may be some selection bias – with only “successful” systems electing to report their results. In the future, Dobbin also wants to find and research those “failed” projects to better understand the factors that make consolidation efforts more or less likely to succeed.

For Prado, however, the Sultana-Monson is already a success – even as Monson residents still wait to be connected into the consolidated system. In fact, Prado had this advice for any community considering helping a nearby town that is struggling with reliable, safe water supply.

“Please be a friendly neighbor and good Samaritan – whatever you want to call yourself – and help out with the water for a community in need,” Prado said.

“Water is life,” he added.

The California Water System Consolidation Survey is supported by a two-year Early Career Research Grant from the California Institute for Water Resources, a statewide institute of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.

California producers: Climate change is real; we could use a little help

Surveys point to pathways to support farmers, ranchers

How can farmers and ranchers continue to grow our food while facing challenges of a changing climate, increasingly scarce water, land use pressures and rising costs? More than a decade of research is revealing important ways universities, government agencies and other support organizations can help our food producers develop resilience to these challenges and remain profitable.

Leslie Roche is a professor of Cooperative Extension, based in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. She helps lead a statewide team, including other University of California scientists and UC Agricultural and Natural Resource specialists, that is using surveys and interviews with people in the state's agricultural sector to learn what folks need to stay strong.

Researchers aim for their results to shape the state's education and extension efforts in the near future. With the largest farming economy in the United States, California's efforts to help producers has national implications.

How to help our food producers?

Despite their confidence and resourcefulness, both ranchers and farmers reported wanting more help from government agencies, such as crop insurance and programs to protect their farms. Some producers surveyed didn't even know that disaster assistance is available,

What they said about their needs:

• Producers want more information about how to adapt to climate change, tools such as weather stations to help them make decisions, and to learn new skills to help them deal with challenges in their operations.
• Computer-based tools that let producers gather data, look at their risks and possibilities, and make decisions about complex problems will help them keep their operations viable.
• Science-based solutions that are offered must be tailored to the conditions individual producers face, mesh with the strategies they already prefer and be cost-effective. Otherwise, producers are unlikely to adopt them.

The statewide team's work is getting noticed, Roche said: Material from one of the rancher focus groups will be presented at the 2025 annual conference of the Association of International Agricultural and Extension Education.

Farmers: Climate change can affect operations

A survey of 341 California farmers “showed that most believe climate change is real, and many think action is needed,” according to a paper led by Samuel Ikendi, a Roche colleague based at UC Merced. “Farmers are especially worried about how climate change affects water, temperatures, and natural disasters,” Ikendi wrote.

Farmers wanted more information on how to adapt and to learn how to use online tools to better understand climate information.

They're already taking action: More than half of those surveyed (54 percent) are changing their irrigation practices, for example.

Protecting and improving the soil is an important course of action:

• About 48 percent are reducing their disturbance of the soil or adopting no-till cultivation practices.
• Nearly 47 percent are building up organic matter in the soil and/or applying amendments such as manure and compost.
• Nearly 40 percent are using mulch on their crops.

Ranchers: “We can do this!”

Ranchers have confidence in their abilities to get through these tough times, relying on hard experience and drawing on trusted relationships in their communities, according to a paper by Roche and colleagues. That research served as the basis for much of what has been published.

Related links

Read more about the surveys and interviews conducted by Roche and the statewide team:

The Roche team plans to help ranchers stay strong despite drought by creating programs that draw on the respondents' own hard-won wisdom.

Surveys also offer insights into the toll that wildfire takes on producers' physical and mental health, and suggests avenues for supporting their ability to adapt.

Climate-smart agricultural practices can help farmers adapt as temperatures warm.

This story was first published on the UC Davis Plant Sciences site.

The Principles of Indigenous Food Sovereignty

Indigenous Food Sovereignty: Opportunities and Importance in Extension work

In 2007, the first global Forum on Food Sovereignty defined the concept as “the right of peoples to healthy, culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.” Since then, advocates of food sovereignty have applied this definition to promote food access in remote areas, urban centers, cultural diaspora and reservations. 

For Indigenous Peoples, food sovereignty includes a kin-centric relational model to the land and non-human relatives as part of the food system. In their 2020 scoping review, Tara L. Maudrie and colleagues identified four principles of indigenous food sovereignty (IFS) and assessed how interventions using these principles impact food access, diet quality, and health. Extension professionals can apply these principles to our research and education with Indigenous communities to increase our impact and create meaningful change:

Principle 1: Community Ownership - Ensuring that interventions are community-led. Using a research approach known as “community-based participatory research” (CBPR) prioritizes ongoing participant engagement in planning, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of the results. Example methods used in successful interventions include developing community advisory boards, consulting with elders and community leaders, and providing reports of the research outcomes to the community. Inviting tribal members and participants to be an active part of the “research team” through co-designed procedures and co-authored products ensures that the Extension projects directly benefit the community.

Principle 2. Inclusion of Traditional Food Knowledge - Emphasizing cultural knowledge about food production, harvesting and preparation. Locally relevant Tribal food systems activities – such as fishing, harvesting traditional plants, and cooking traditional recipes – support intergenerational knowledge passing and resilient food systems. Further inclusion of tribal land management and food production techniques such as burning and seed-keeping maintain a respect for Indigenous traditions and land ethic. Incorporating culturally relevant nutrition education, conducting prior research on local food systems knowledge, and gathering community feedback to inform project development can help to integrate traditional knowledge systems with Extension expertise in food systems and community health. 

Principle 3: Promotion of Traditional and Cultural Foods: Encouraging the consumption of Indigenous, nutrient-dense, traditional foods. Traditional Indigenous foods uplift cultural values, and research indicates an association between traditional food intake and diet quality. Promoting specific cultural foods of local tribes represent this principle. Traditional foods offer an opportunity to explore potential collaborations with UC Master Gardeners, local producers and UC Master Food Preservers. Permission of tribal leaders for any use of traditional foods and preparations, especially for external audiences, is essential to support tribal food sovereignty and maintain trust between Extension agents and tribal communities.

Principle 4: Environmental Sustainability - Supporting sustainable food systems that respect and integrate Indigenous knowledge of the environment. Barriers to healthy food access include environmental degradation of traditional harvesting and cultivation sites, lack of reliable food distributors, and the replacement of fresh produce by packaged and processed food. These environmental factors can contribute to health disparities by disproportionately impacting communities with limited income and mobility. Creating gardens, food distributions and supporting cultural connections to the environment helps to foster resilient and sustainable food systems rooted in an ethic of care.

Maudrie's review shows that health and nutrition programs that integrate the principles of Indigenous Food Sovereignty have positive impacts on diet quality and nutrition security. These programs considered the program's environmental impact, continually engaged the community and prioritized traditional knowledge and foods. These principles can be applied to a wide variety of Extension methods and research approaches, offering a pathway toward improved food systems, cultural revitalization and better health outcomes for California's Indigenous communities.

Urban wildfire impacts water, soil and wildlife

UC experts offer tips on testing drinking water, rehabilitating gardens

As residents start to clean up after the Los Angeles County wildfires, the aftermath will continue to impact water and natural resources in and beyond the fire areas, according to water experts at University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Urban wildfires have grown more frequent and intense in the past decade. Record dryness and high winds created conditions capable of enormous heat and destruction; in these types of wildfire events, infrastructure systems – including water supply and electricity – may be affected.

For example, high heat created in urban wildfires can damage or destroy parts of a water distribution system, which disrupts supplies and introduces risks.

“Volatile organics and carcinogens can enter drinking water through compromised parts of the system that get melted by fire,” said Erik Porse, director of the California Institute for Water Resources. He added, “When distribution systems are damaged or face heavy demands, pipes can lose pressure, allowing bacterial growth.”

Water agencies in affected parts of Los Angeles County responded to these risks by monitoring water quality and releasing “do not drink” advisories in affected areas. Such notices are not unusual following disasters, but are jarring for residents who are accustomed to reliable household water. 

Ash, runoff can contaminate supply of drinking water 

If wildfires occur in watersheds that supply cities with water, ash and polluted runoff may contaminate water bodies in fire zones.

“Water treatment systems may be unable to treat incoming water if that water has high levels of solids or contaminants,” Porse said. 

These risks arose with the Hughes Fire near Castaic Lake, which supplies drinking water to parts of northern Los Angeles County. As the fire spread last week, water agencies in Los Angeles were monitoring the situation closely.

Many areas of Los Angeles also rely on groundwater. Future rains can cause contaminants to infiltrate into groundwater basins and create similar treatment challenges for water agencies.

Local water agencies are the best source of information to find out if drinking water is safe. During times of both routine operations and disasters, water utilities are subject to stringent standards and they monitor water quality in their systems as required by law.

“If a water utility publishes ‘do not drink' or ‘boil' advisories in your area, follow directions in the notice and stay up-to-date through website and social media updates,” Porse advised.

Edith de Guzman, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in water equity and adaptation policy at UCLA, added, “Residents who are not in such advisory areas should feel confident that their utility is monitoring the situation and that their water is meeting regulatory standards and is safe.”

Anyone who has concerns about the quality of the water in their home or office can get their water tested. “Water testing can always provide residents or business owners more information and it's important to understand how to interpret results,” said Porse.

Researchers at UC ANR and the Food-Energy-Water Systems for the Underserved lab at UC Merced published a fact sheet with resources on how to test water and understand the results.

Mudslides, degraded waterways other possible effects of wildfires

While rain would reduce overall wildfire risk, as little as a half-inch of rain in a short period of time could also trigger mudslides or debris flows because intense fires alter the ecosystem.

“Mudslides are a danger in areas burned by wildfires because the fires can destroy vegetation that would usually do two things – soak up some of the water and help keep the soil in place,” said Hope Hauptman, assistant project scientist with California Institute for Water Resources. “So, without that stabilizing plant cover, rain can run off quickly, and the exposed soil – particularly on steep slopes – can turn into dangerous mudflows.”

In addition to removing soil-stabilizing plants, intense fires can change soil characteristics, causing it to repel rather than absorb water, said Monica Palta, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in urban water quality, health and justice at UC Irvine.

“A wildfire with high heat can cause sandy soils in particular to become hydrophobic, or repel water,”Palta said. “A hotter fire creates a waxy substance, formed from burned plant material, that coats the soil and inhibits its ability to infiltrate water and elevates surface runoff.”

Elevated surface runoff increases erosion and causes toxic soils and ash to wash into rivers and the ocean.

“Ash from wildfires can contain heavy metals that are toxic to fish and other animals,” Palta said. “Ash from urban wildfires can have additional types of toxins from melted plastics and other materials in human-built structures like houses.”

Wildfire ash also contains large quantities of nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen. When those nutrients enter coastal waterways, they can trigger harmful algal blooms, which is bad for swimmers, surfers and wildlife. “Algal blooms can produce their own toxins, and the large amount of decomposing algae in an algal bloom consumes oxygen that fish and other aquatic wildlife need to breathe,” Palta explained.

These water quality issues can persist for years after a fire.

“When contaminated water infiltrates soil or is taken up by plants, the contaminants have a good chance of being bound and stored there,” Palta says. “As wildfire destroys plant communities and causes soils to repel water, it causes not only the release of contaminants into the environment, but reduces the ability of an environment to capture and store those contaminants before they reach a river or the ocean.”

Cleanup crucial in rehabilitating garden after fire 

To remove the harmful substances in soil and improve infiltration, Palta recommends taking off the top 6 to 12 inches of soil in gardens, disposing of the soil in plastic bags placed in a trash bin (do not discard in a green bin or compost pile), and then adding new, clean soil to garden beds. 

Mixing in compost also will improve infiltration and bind contaminants like heavy metals. 

“I would advise engaging a professional to remove the soil because you need to wear correct protective equipment to avoid exposure,” she added. “You can wash ash off of garden plants with water from a hose, but be aware that the contaminants will then go into the soil, so wash your plants before removing soil from the yard. Scorched plant material should be removed from the garden, as it may contain contaminants.” 

She also recommends replanting vegetation in the “clean” soil as soon as possible, and taking steps to control erosion. 

“To stabilize slopes and hillsides, you can lay logs or branches perpendicular to the slope to block water and erosion down the slope,” Palta said. 

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County also have a list of tips on how to mitigate damage on a landscape burned by wildfire when heavy rains begin.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health encourages testing soil and water (if not done by your local water provider) prior to starting a garden. On page 16 of the agency's Soil and Water Testing Guidelines for Home and Community Gardens is a list of soil-testing labs. 

UC ANR Fire Network shares resources on reducing impacts of wildfire, smoke

Fire advisors offer guidance on minimizing damage, preparing for evacuation, protecting against smoke

With exceptionally dry conditions persisting in many parts of California, residents should double their efforts to prepare homes, families, businesses and communities for potential wildfire and smoke impacts, according to University of California fire experts.

“Even as firefighters make progress in containing the Los Angeles-area fires, communities must continue to be vigilant across Southern California and other regions that are experiencing this historically dry ‘wet season,'” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources' Fire Network.

The Fire Network is a team of UC Cooperative Extension fire and natural resource advisors, specialists and staff who deliver fire-related research, outreach, and support for communities across the state.

The experts have assembled a website with a wide range of relevant resources at ucanr.edu/fire. Quinn-Davidson said the “Wildfire Preparedness” page contains essential information on how to protect homes and property from fire: https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Preparedness.

“There are many small but significant tasks that people can complete to shore up potential danger spots and minimize fire damage,” she emphasized.

Experts highlight six things to do before evacuating

For communities where evacuation warnings have been issued, Quinn-Davidson and other members of the Fire Network urge residents to do six key things in advance of an actual evacuation order.

• Close windows, fireplace screens, pet doors and skylights.
• Move inside patio cushions, brooms and door mats; tie open wooden gates that attach to the house or deck to prevent a fire from traveling from the fence to the house.
• Relocate any propane tanks away from the home.
• Stage buckets of water and garden hoses in visible locations.
• Dress for evacuation: long sleeve cotton clothes, sturdy shoes, hat and face protection and leather gloves.
• Put your “go-bag” in your vehicle and share your evacuation plans with out-of-area family or friends.

The UC ANR Fire Network website also includes downloadable checklists – in English and Spanish – for your go-bag (https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Safety/Evacuation/Preparing_a_Go-Bag/) and for a host of important pre-evacuation tasks for your household, property, pets and livestock (https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Safety/Evacuation/).   

“These actions can make a tremendous difference when preparing for wildfire, even just hours before evacuation,” Quinn-Davidson said.

Take precautions to protect yourself from smoke

During wildfire events, smoke from nearby fires can blanket nearby areas. A primer on harmful health effects, a list of tips for reducing smoke exposure, and other resources and links can be found on the UC ANR Fire Network site: https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Safety/Air_Quality_and_Smoke/.

“It's important to monitor your local air quality so you can mitigate smoke impacts,” said Katie Low, statewide coordinator for UC ANR's Fire Network. “One go-to resource is fire.airnow.gov. If the AQI – Air Quality Index – is high, I would limit my outdoor activity, wear an N95 mask if I do go outside, and run my air purifier.”

For instructions on making a DIY air cleaner, creating a “clean air space” in your home and fitting an N95 mask properly, visit the California Air Resources Board's “Smoke Ready California” page: https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/smokereadyca.

A wildfire can also contaminate drinking water to an extent beyond what boiling can remedy; residents should check with their local water department or district for any advisories.

Another useful tool is the crowd-sourced #FireMappers fire activity map – powered by the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS Foundation, GISCorps, and CEDR Digital – accessible through the UC ANR Fire Network site: https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Safety/Current/. 

Media Resources

Lenya Quinn-Davidson: lquinndavidson@ucanr.edu; (707) 272-0637 

Katie Low: katlow@ucanr.edu; (530) 889-7385

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