-December 29,2019-
Kettleman City is home to approximately 1,500 people and located in Kings County just east of SLO County The state been working with the local authorities for ten years to mitigate arsenic contamination in the groundwater wells which served the community. Finally on November 18 a new surface water treatment plant (funded primarily by the State Water Board along with USDA funding) began supplying the community with drinking water. Completion and operation of the surface water treatment plant provides a reliable source of safe drinking water for Kettleman City.The small farmworker community has had an infamous bout of childhood cancers that some locals blamed on bad water.
State Water Board staff attended a ribbon cutting ceremony on December 18, 2019, in Kettleman City to celebrate completion of construction for the new surface water treatment plant. The State Water Board initially approved a $7.5 million grant for Kettleman City Community Services District for construction in February 2017. When construction bids came back higher than anticipated, the grant was amended to award $8.5 million. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also provided $2.5 million in grant funding, bringing the project cost to just over $11 million. In addition to the construction funding, the District has also received $539,620 in emergency grant funding from the State Water Board since 2013 for the purchase and delivery of bottled water to residential customers due to their primary drink water source being contaminated with arsenic.