California has a reputation that is mostly made up of impressions from San Francisco or Los Angeles. But there is a huge area in the middle of California called the "Central Valley". It is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the nation, also with some of the highest poverty rates nationally, and very conservative. The area is really the "bible belt" of California. The Valley (as most of us call it) is drowning in it's own productivity.

The Valley is a perfect looong bowl framed by the Sierra Nevada's and the California coastal range. Because of geography, agricultural overuse, and overpopulation it now has some of the worst air pollution in the nation leading the charge with so-called "PM-10's", or particulate matter smaller than 10 microns. It's no slouch in ozone eitherranking in the top 5 nationwide, but the particulates are particularly bad because when inhaled, they go deep into the lungs and remain resident ..... like asbestos.

Now we have another burgeoning problem. As a portion of the Valley has become the dairy center of the world with many 10,000 cow dairies, water pollution is now becoming a pervasive issue:

In late afternoon, the line starts at the bright blue water kiosk just outside the Hong Kong restaurant on El Monte Avenue in Orosi. Instead of using their own tap water, many residents in northern Tulare County are buying bottled water to drink.

According to the state's Groundwater Ambient Monitoring Assessment Board tests released Nov. 9 — the results of which were sent to the various Tulare County private well owners last week — say 135 of the 181 wells tested contained more coliform bacteria and nitrates than California standards allow.

.....

"The problem is decades in the making, and is only getting worse the longer that groundwater is not protected adequately," Firestone said.

Nitrates have long been an issue with local private well water, Firestone said, and are "acute" contaminants that have been linked to a variety of health problems.

Swell. Orosi is a very poor community of mostly farm workers who certainly cannot afford water filtration equipment.

The Valley, essentially a desert, depends on groundwater for it's needs. This fragile resource is restored by percipitation and run-off percolating into the ground. If the ground is not polluted, the percolation results in clean water in an immense lake under the Valley. If the above ground is covered in cow shit and fertilizers overused to improve productivity, guess what ends up in the aquafer? Cow shit and fertilizer.

What's happening in Central California is a convergence of events that, in situ, prove why strong and effective government regulation is a must. The carrying capacity of the environment in the area is being greatly exceeded by overpopulation and the greed of agricultural interests run amok. Local conservative government is unwilling to do anything about the problem, other's in the state are unaware of the problem (and really don't care anyway), and the majority of the population in the Valley are poor immigrants who do not use the levers of political power.

So they line up to buy water while breathing dirty air.

The problem is getting so out of control, I'm unsure that it will be manageable in any kind of real-time terms. One official was heard to say that unless everyone moved out, the pollution problem would proceed unabated. There are already widespread difficulties attracting professionals to the area due to environmental problems. It won't be until the economics of people refusing to live there set in that anything will likely be done. Given the total picture those who stay, or who are stuck there, will just get sick.