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• 1 media/HERO-bottles.jpg 2024-04-19T19:32:38+00:00 Danger Where No One Suspects: Implications Behind State Government has Reacted to Water Contamination in the San Joaquin Valley 46 Throughout this website I examine the relationship between the peoples struggle with water contamination and the participation of the government in this issue. image_header 2024-04-26T04:06:12+00:00 In the cauliflower fields of rural California, no one knew the dangers of their most common energy source, water. Day after day Braceros, those who came from Mexico to temporarily work in agriculture in the United States, would work in fields that provided unknown dangerous conditions. Specifically, they were covered in pesticides. When it rained they would runoff into the water system and be consumed by those who lived in the town. Sandra Garcia is the daughter of Braceros, a resident of Poplar in the San Joaquin Valley, and an advocate for legislation to prevent water contamination. Her mother, who worked in the fields, and two of her coworkers fell ill. The doctors diagnosed her with various illnesses, but failed to identify the true cause. She and the others passed away less than a month later and the autopsy showed large quantities of pesticides and nitrates in her system. At the time, Sandra did not even think that the water she drank every day could be the reason why.
  
  
  Sandra looked into her mothers death and found that their well water was very contaminated. She has been an advocate for her community and those suffering like them for almost 20 years, and access to clean water has still not been achieved for Poplar, California. She also made it her mission to educate people on water contamination, as many in their community did not know about it. This is only one of many stories from people just like Sandra Garcia. All throughout the San Joaquin Valley there are issues with water contamination. Recently water contamination has been studied by scientists and doctors and has been linked to stomach inflammation, weakness, headaches, cancer, nervous system disabilities, miscarriage, and many other health conditions. These effects usually don't happen immediately, but occur after a while of drinking the water and can affect a person for the rest of their lives. The lack of information on water contamination for the people living in contaminated areas is also to blame.
  
  In this research I wanted to find more about how the government has been involved in this situation and how their inadequate actions have been disproportionately affecting some of the population more than others. More than half the population of the San Joaquin Valley is non-white and a quarter is below the poverty line. So I argue that this lack of successful government involvement is due to environmental racism and perceived unimportance of the poor.