California's Foul Response to Its Arsenic-Laced Drinking Water

For more than five years, prisoners at Kern Valley State Prison have been forced to drink water that the state of California knows is laced with arsenic, a known carcinogen. And for more than five years, officials have chosen not to do anything about it.

They have, however, talked about how they “anticipate” doing something about it.

In an April 2008 memo to incarcerated men and employees at the facility, located in Delano, California, then-warden Anthony Hedgpeth noting that the prison's drinking water contained roughly twice the level of arsenic permitted by the EPA. “This is not an emergency,” the memo stated, even as it proceeded to note that drinking the water over an extended period – like, say, a prisoner with no other options – may cause “skin damage or circulatory system problems,” in addition to causing cancer.

But – but! – the memo pledged officials were busy working on a solution. “Kern Valley State Prison is working with Facilities Planning, Construction and Management to install an Arsenic Treatment System,” it said. “We anticipate resolving the problem by June 2009.”

The problem hasn't been resolved as anticipated. Rather, according to an identically worded January 2011 memo issued by new warden M.D. Biter – not a fake name – officials now “anticipate resolving the problem by October 2011.”

I'm guessing the facility's more than 5,000 prisoners aren't getting their hopes up.

Ken August, a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health, says while there has been no apparent progress toward addressing the prison's arsenic problem – not even the installation of temporary, portable water filters – that's not illegal. Though the department issued a compliance order in December 2008 over the prison's “violation of the arsenic maximum contaminant level,” that order only required officials to submit their plans for resolving the problem and to notify their prisoners about the arsenic contamination – not actually do something to fix it.

“Kern Valley State Prison has met the terms of its compliance order,” says August. “No penalties are warranted at this time.”

August also suggested the problem won't be resolved even by October 2011, the date prison officials laid out a few weeks for when they “anticipate” resolving the problem. Instead, he says actual construction on a water filtration system “should start within six months and take one year for completion” – meaning prisoners could be waiting until February 2012 for drinking water that won't slowly kill them.

And keep in mind: August based his statement on information provided by the prison, which, again, is not bound by the Department of Public Health's 2008 compliance order to actually resolve the problem.

That's where you come in. Officials at all levels of the California government are clearly stonewalling. They frankly don't give a damn about the state's more than 160,000 prisoners – though public pressure might make them.

Join Blanca Gonzaelz, the mother of an incarcerated man who was sickened by Kern Valley State Prison's foul water, in demanding that action be taken to ensure California no longer poisons its prisoners.

Photo Credit: Elliot Brown