Deja Vu: California Officials 'Anticipate' Fixing Prison Arsenic Problem

California officials first learned that the water at Kern Valley State Prison was contaminated with arsenic – twice the level considered safe by the World Health Organization – soon after the facility opened in 2005. Now one of the top prison officials in the state tells Change.org the problem will be fixed.

The problem with that, though? We've heard it before.

In December 2008, the prison's warden at the time, Anthony Hedgpeth, issued a memo pledging action to fix the contaminated water problem. “We anticipate resolving the problem by June 2009,” the memo stated, noting that exposure to arsenic can cause skin damage and circulatory system problems, as well as increase the risk one will develop cancer. Indeed, according to the EPA, long-term arsenic exposure can cause “cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin, kidneys, nasal passages, liver and prostate.”

Arsenic contamination is a particular population when dealing with a captive population – like the more than 5,000 men incarcerated at Kern Valley State Prison – that can't switch to bottled water or other alternative sources of water.

But despite the pledge to address the issue ... nothing happened.

Then this past January, the prison's new warden, M.D. Biter, issued a memo of his own that also promised action, pledging officials would finally build that much-talked about arsenic treatment facility. But his words were familiar. “We anticipate resolving the problem by October 2011.”

Take a guess at what happened next.

Earlier this month, meanwhile, a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health gave Change.org a new deadline for when a treatment facility would be built. “Construction should start within 6 months,” the spokesman said, “and take 1 year for completion” – meaning it “should” be finished by as late as February 2012.

Now less than two weeks later, Scott Kernan, the undersecretary of operations at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, in a statement to Change.org lays out another new deadline -- or "deadline" -- for when Kern Valley State Prison will begin to provide its inmates clean drinking water: “We anticipate fully resolving this problem by August 2012.”

Kernan's statement comes after nearly 2,000 people signed a petition started by Blanca Gonzalez – the mother of an inmate she says was sickened by the prison's water -- demanding concrete action be taken to ensure Kern Valley State Prison provided safe drinking water. Gonzalez started the petition after she says her son was sickened by the water he had no choice but to drink.

And Gonzalez isn't the only mother to make such claims. In an interview, Bertha Nava, whose son has been incarcerated at Kern Valley State Prison for more than five years, told Change.org her son had “mentioned to me that the water looked like part urine, part water – that it was very bad to drink.”

“My son is supposed to be released in 13 years,” Nava continued. “Well, what medical problems is he going to have when he's released? Will he be able to function normally? Or is he going to be released just to die from cancer because of the water?”

But the statement from California's top prison official not only fails to set a definitive deadline for fixing the water problem, it downplays the risks inmates face (see the statement for yourself). That – and the years worth of missed deadlines – suggests it's just not that big of a deal in the eyes of the state's top officials.

“I want to assure you this issue has been taken seriously,” Kernan notheless claims,” and we are nearing a solution to the problem.”

But the families of the incarcerated want more than just promises, more than just statements about how officials “anticipate” resolving the problem or are “nearing a solution” to addressing the arsenic-laced water their loved ones are being forced to drink. They want action – meaning the building of an actual treatment facility – not just pretty but ultimately meaningless words.

And they're still waiting.

Photo Credit: Russ Glasson