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Los Angeles Times / January 3, 2009
DELANO, Calif.- Beside a field of tumbleweed in this remote Central Valley town, California opened its newest prison in 2005 with a modern design, innovative security features, and a big environmental problem.
Discuss
Drinking water from two wells at Kern Valley State Prison contained arsenic, a known cause of cancer, in amounts far higher than a federal safety standard soon to take effect.
Yet, nearly three years after missing the government's deadline to reduce the arsenic levels, the state has no concrete plans or funding to meet it. Officials spent $629,000 to design a filtration system and then decided not to build it, while neglecting to inform staff and inmates that they were consuming contaminated water.
"It's not that major of an issue," said Kelly Harrington, the prison's new warden.
But long-term exposure to arsenic, common in Central Valley communities, has been linked to cancer of the lungs, skin, kidneys, liver, and bladder and to other maladies.
Critics say the situation is emblematic of the short-sighted planning and creeping pace of the prison bureaucracy as it struggles to house 170,000 inmates.
Between 1987 and 1994, the state built four prisons in a part of the Central Valley known as a hotbed of valley fever, a sometimes severe infection that usually affects the lungs. Health researchers estimate that the state has spent millions to treat inmates with the disease, which is produced by a fungus in the soil.
In 2007, the year after five inmates died of valley fever, the state proposed expanding five prisons in the Central Valley but later backed off on two of the sites. One proposed expansion site, Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, had an outbreak that made 520 prisoners sick in 2006. A Fresno County grand jury concluded last year that the prison, built in 1994, should not have been put there.Continued...
In 2001, four years before Kern Valley prison opened, the US Environmental Protection Agency ordered a reduction in the maximum level of arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 nationwide. Water suppliers had until Jan. 23, 2006, to meet the new standard. Recent testing has shown the arsenic level in one Kern Valley prison well at 23 parts per billion and the other at 15.
On Dec. 12, the state health department ordered Kern Valley State Prison to come up with a plan by February to comply with the arsenic law.
The prison's chief medical officer, Dr. Sherry Lopez, said there was no immediate danger from the its water, based on an e-mail she received in April from a poison-control specialist who said arsenic is "much more a regulatory problem than a public health problem."
four years before Kern Valley prison opened, the US Environmental Protection Agency ordered a reduction in the maximum level of arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 nationwide. Water suppliers had until Jan. 23, 2006, to meet the new standard. Recent testing has shown the arsenic level in one Kern Valley prison well at 23 parts per billion and the other at 15.
Discuss
State project manager Gary Lewis said the filtration plant is still in the study phase.
This year, the EPA has ordered 11 California water systems to reduce excessive arsenic levels. One was the city of Delano, which serves the North Kern State Prison, a few miles from Kern Valley prison. On Dec. 12, the state health department ordered Kern Valley State Prison to come up with a plan by February to comply with the arsenic law.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
We need to stop the rare cancer rates from spreading.
Discuss
Drinking water from two wells at Kern Valley State Prison contained arsenic, a known cause of cancer, in amounts far higher than a federal safety standard soon to take effect.
Yet, nearly three years after missing the government's deadline to reduce the arsenic levels, the state has no concrete plans or funding to meet it. Officials spent $629,000 to design a filtration system and then decided not to build it, while neglecting to inform staff and inmates that they were consuming contaminated water.
"It's not that major of an issue," said Kelly Harrington, the prison's new warden.
But long-term exposure to arsenic, common in Central Valley communities, has been linked to cancer of the lungs, skin, kidneys, liver, and bladder and to other maladies.
Critics say the situation is emblematic of the short-sighted planning and creeping pace of the prison bureaucracy as it struggles to house 170,000 inmates.
Between 1987 and 1994, the state built four prisons in a part of the Central Valley known as a hotbed of valley fever, a sometimes severe infection that usually affects the lungs. Health researchers estimate that the state has spent millions to treat inmates with the disease, which is produced by a fungus in the soil.
In 2007, the year after five inmates died of valley fever, the state proposed expanding five prisons in the Central Valley but later backed off on two of the sites. One proposed expansion site, Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, had an outbreak that made 520 prisoners sick in 2006. A Fresno County grand jury concluded last year that the prison, built in 1994, should not have been put there.Continued...
In 2001, four years before Kern Valley prison opened, the US Environmental Protection Agency ordered a reduction in the maximum level of arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 nationwide. Water suppliers had until Jan. 23, 2006, to meet the new standard. Recent testing has shown the arsenic level in one Kern Valley prison well at 23 parts per billion and the other at 15.
On Dec. 12, the state health department ordered Kern Valley State Prison to come up with a plan by February to comply with the arsenic law.
The prison's chief medical officer, Dr. Sherry Lopez, said there was no immediate danger from the its water, based on an e-mail she received in April from a poison-control specialist who said arsenic is "much more a regulatory problem than a public health problem."
four years before Kern Valley prison opened, the US Environmental Protection Agency ordered a reduction in the maximum level of arsenic in drinking water from 50 parts per billion to 10 nationwide. Water suppliers had until Jan. 23, 2006, to meet the new standard. Recent testing has shown the arsenic level in one Kern Valley prison well at 23 parts per billion and the other at 15.
Discuss
State project manager Gary Lewis said the filtration plant is still in the study phase.
This year, the EPA has ordered 11 California water systems to reduce excessive arsenic levels. One was the city of Delano, which serves the North Kern State Prison, a few miles from Kern Valley prison. On Dec. 12, the state health department ordered Kern Valley State Prison to come up with a plan by February to comply with the arsenic law.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
We need to stop the rare cancer rates from spreading.
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