This research shows that the closeness of DUCs to safe drinking water and their exclusion from it is caused by institutional race and class discrimination.

84% of DUCs served by out-of-compliance systems are people of color and low income communities.

Research done in the San Joaquin Valley found that about 71% of those who live in “disadvantaged unincorporated communities” (DUCs), which means people who are low income and often people of color, have access to community water systems.

This act says that it applies to all community water systems, which means that every water system to cover more than 25 people is protected.

A recent news article talks about how in one San Joaquin Valley county a new groundbank is being proposed in an area where contamination has not been found. The project is currently on standby.

They also stated that they provided “funding for education and training to more than 200 valley residents about preventing pollution of drinking water”.

In 2012, they found that over 50% of the systems in California that failed to meet water quality standards were in the San Joaquin Valley. Their solution was to bring 21 systems into the valley every year for the next three years.

This doesn't seem to be the case though. The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) made it the government's responsibility to regulate the nation’s drinking water and ensure public safety. The SDWA also says that California has primacy, and therefore has the agency to regulate their own water systems. Allegedly the SDWA provides grants for those trying to improve their water quality, ensures that waste does not enter the water system through the ground, shares public information about water quality and its effects accessibly, and ensures that water is always held to certain standards of safety.

California boasted that they were the first state to recognize that “every human being had the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water”.

They mentioned that they were distrustful of their tap water because of the lack of and misleading information given to them about the chemicals in their water. One person was lamenting that “We buy $100 of [bottled] water almost every week” .

A large proportion of these valley residents live near systems with clean water, they are just not connected to them.

Demographic studies have shown that the places with the most water system violations have a high population of people of color and are low income communities.

The other study talks about how communities that are already vulnerable to other injustices are also more vulnerable to environmental inequality.

A survey found that people knew that their area had a history of being contaminated and opted to use bottled water for their cooking and consumption. It also found that the people were not aware of many/any of the long term effects. Water contamination was not one of their main concerns and they had more important things to worry about, such as poverty, education, and learning English.

Studies have been done showing that those who are Latino and rent their homes (which is more common among those with lower economic status) are more likely to have water contaminated with nitrates.

The poverty line household income is about $31,000 dollars in the United States. Many farm workers make less than $9,000. They are also the most exposed to pesticides through their work, houses, water, and food. Sometimes while they work they will get sprayed directly with pesticides.

Farm workers tend to make barely a living wage and a very high percentage of them are below the poverty line.

They are also less likely to have access to a community water system, meaning that their water is not as closely regulated and has a higher chance of being contaminated.

Studies show that people of color are 40 percent more likely to have water systems that violate the law.

According to the US Census, the majority of San Joaquin County is Hispanic or Latino with about 42 percent, next is White with about 28 percent, and then Asian with about 17 percent of the population.

A different study looked at dairy farms, nitrates in drinking water, and low birth weight and found a correlation between all three of them. This means that the farming nature of the valley has led to contaminated water, which has lead to health disadvantages.

Nitrates have been found in 61 percent of the valley’s drinking water and impacted over 275,000 people. Some health issues that have been potentially linked to nitrates include indigestion, depression, weakness, miscarriage, cancer, nervous system disabilities, Crohn’s disease, and more.

The pesticides used in California have also been linked to increased chances of childhood cancers. About 170,000 children are living in the danger zone and therefore are at higher risk

One study found that higher levels of arsenic in drinking water can lead to an increased risk of developing cancer

In addition, arsenic was found in 60 percent of the valley’s water and can produce blindness and partial paralysis in those exposed.

In some counties almost the entire population is drinking it.

California employs about 20 and 50 percent of the pesticides used in the United States

Seven of California’s top agricultural counties are in the San Joaquin Valley

Recently water contamination has been studied by scientists and doctors and has been linked to stomach inflammation, weakness, headaches, cancer, nervous system disabilities, miscarriage, and many other health conditions.

In the cauliflower fields of rural California, no one knew the dangers of their most common energy source, water. Day after day Braceros, those who came from Mexico to temporarily work in agriculture in the United States, would work in fields that provided unknown dangerous conditions. Specifically, they were covered in pesticides. When it rained they would runoff into the water system and be consumed by those who lived in the town. Sandra Garcia is the daughter of Braceros, a resident of Poplar in the San Joaquin Valley, and an advocate for legislation to prevent water contamination. Her mother, who worked in the fields, and two of her coworkers fell ill. The doctors diagnosed her with various illnesses, but failed to identify the true cause. She and the others passed away less than a month later and the autopsy showed large quantities of pesticides and nitrates in her system. At the time, Sandra did not even think that the water she drank every day could be the reason why.