Sara Rubin here, more than a decade after I first reported on the lack of safe drinking water in the South County community of San Lucas. In the 21st century in the United States of America, this story is shocking, but it has persisted: The water is not safe to drink.
In July of 2011, the County of Monterey Health Department issued a notice to residents not to drink the water, which exceeded the limit for nitrates safe for human consumption.
In the 14 years since, there’s been a slog through bureaucracy, remedies that didn’t work and questions about how to pay for a remedy that would work, given that most residents of San Lucas would not be able to afford high utility bills or a costly bond.
All of this background is part of why I was so delighted to read staff writer Katie Rodriguez’s news story in the June 19 issue of the Weekly about what looks like it might be, at long last, a real answer to getting a sustainable, affordable and safe water supply to San Lucas.
Rodriguez describes some of the banal reality of a life lived in a town without safe tap water: On Tuesdays, households can pick up two 5-gallon containers of bottled water, and on Thursdays, 15 gallons total.
The newsy part of the story is a 5-0 vote by members of the San Lucas County Water District on June 10 to pursue a long-term water solution. The $15 million plan is to drill a new well with onsite treatment, and for ownership of the system to be transferred to Cal Water King City.
There are still i’s to dot and t’s to cross and dollars to raise, but the great news for San Lucas is that the end might finally be in sight.
That does not mean there is resolution to the bigger issue that the story of San Lucas represents, and it’s a story that is relevant to rural communities in agricultural areas everywhere. Ubiquitous nitrogen fertilizer means the risk of nitrate contamination, and our food system is based on nitrogen-intensive farming.
A group of San Lucas residents called Misión San Lucas is well aware of this reality, and in March 2024, joined a group in filing a complaint with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency claiming that ongoing nitrate pollution is a civil rights violation. The EPA rejected their complaint and declined to open an investigation, on the basis of pending civil lawsuits over California nitrate regulations.
That means even if the saga is finally over for San Lucas taps, it continues elsewhere, including in the courts.