Lurking In The Water: Just A Reminder [HELL ON EARTH]
The Crisis Lurking in Californians’ Taps: How 1,000 Water Systems May Be at Risk
The troubled districts, which operate in mostly poor areas on thin budgets, receive little oversight and face a host of problems.
The brown water, provided by the Sativa Los Angeles County Water District, first drew public outrage and local news media attention last year when customers began protesting over unexplained stomach pains and skin so itchy it had scarred from the scratching.
Sign Up for the Morning Briefing
Get what you need to know to start your day, delivered to your inbox.
Elected officials were soon jolted into action. Sativa’s elected board of directors was disbanded and Los Angeles County took control of the water district. The county is now working furiously to replace dilapidated pipes and wells, and this week began new construction to reinforce Sativa’s system. But problems persist. Overhauling the district has taken far more time and money than anyone initially expected because, by the time the county stepped in last fall, the district’s infrastructure was on the brink of collapse.
Sativa is just one case, which erupted into public view after decades of neglect. The rot in California’s water system likely extends far beyond it.
As many as 1,000 community water systems in California may be at high risk of failing to deliver potable water — one out of every three — according to a previously undisclosed estimate by senior officials at the California State Water Resources Control Board, which regulates drinking water. These troubled districts, which include Sativa, often operate in mostly poor areas on thin budgets. With little oversight, they face problems ranging from bankruptcy to sudden interruptions in water capacity, to harmful toxins being delivered through taps.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/us/the-crisis-lurking-in-californians-taps-how-1000-water-systems-may-be-at-risk.html
FBI raids at DWP, L.A. City Hall related to fallout from billing debacle
FBI agents fanned across the Los Angeles area on Monday, serving search warrants at multiple government offices, including the Department of Water and Power, as part of an investigation into how the city responded to the disastrous rollout of a new customer billing system.
Investigators searched the DWP headquarters on Hope Street and the offices of City Atty. Mike Feuer a few blocks away at City Hall. Search warrants were also served in two other locations — one in Beverly Hills, the other in an office tower that houses multiple city agencies.
An FBI representative would not describe the nature of the investigation. Feuer’s spokesman Rob Wilcox, however, said the warrants served at the city attorney’s office were connected to the city’s settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed over the inaccurate DWP bills that resulted from the launch of the new billing system in 2013.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-07-22/fbi-searches-dwp-headquarters-in-downtown-l-a