Arsenic levels too high in Kern Valley State Prison's drinking water

[one...two...tree 2,762]

NO CHOICE: Kern Valley State Prison inmates drink tap water. Officials made filtration plans, then scrapped them.

Three years past deadline, California has no solid plan to reduce the arsenic, which has been linked to cancer. Officials spent money to design a filtration plant and then decided not to build it.

By Michael Rothfeld, LA Times

Reporting from Delano — Beside a field of rolling tumbleweed in this remote Central Valley town, the state opened its newest prison in 2005 with a modern design, cutting-edge security features and a serious environmental problem.

The drinking water pumped 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 today, nearly three years after missing the government's deadline to reduce the arsenic levels, the state has no concrete plans or funding to do so. 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.

After the prison finally posted notices last April on orders from the state Department of Public Health, the inmates continued drinking the water, under protest.

"We have no choice," said Larry Tillman, 38, who was serving time for burglary. "We should at the very least receive bottled water, or truck in water from another city."

Most correctional officers at Kern Valley State Prison take bottled water to work -- some say they prefer it anyway -- but administrators created a form letter to reject requests for alternative water from some of the 4,800 inmates. The administrators say the health hazard from arsenic, a chemical used in industry and farming, is insignificant, and they promise to filter the water some time in the next few years.

"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.

The situation, critics say, is emblematic of the short-sighted planning and creeping pace of the mammoth prison bureaucracy as it struggles to house 170,000 of California's most undesired residents.

The state has placed many of its lockups far from major cities, in rural areas with nothing as far as the eye can see, where they are embraced by residents desperate for jobs and commerce. But officials have sometimes ignored health threats endemic to these regions.

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 experts estimate that the state has spent millions to treat inmates for the disease, spawned by a fungus in desert soil.

In 2007, the year after five inmates died from 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 sickened 520 prisoners in 2006. A Fresno County grand jury concluded last year that the prison, built in 1994, should not have been put there.

At the California Institution for Women in Chino, the state has been buying bottled water for prisoners for five years -- at a current annual cost of $480,000 -- because of nitrate levels that violate federal standards in the water supply to the facility and to the nearby California Institution for Men. Nitrates, which are chemical compounds that often get into soil from fertilizer and manure, can cause a blood disorder in fetuses and infants.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ar...story?track=rss

Edited December 29, 2008 by Mister Fancypants

[Nagishkaw 510]

Imagine that.

[Ban Hammer 13,355]

they shouldn't have to drink that water, they should be let out!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

they shouldn't have to drink that water, they should be let out!

At the California Institution for Women in Chino, the state has been buying bottled water for prisoners for five years -- at a current annual cost of $480,000 -- because of nitrate levels that violate federal standards in the water supply to the facility and to the nearby California Institution for Men. Nitrates, which are chemical compounds that often get into soil from fertilizer and manure, can cause a blood disorder in fetuses and infants.

Once convicted of a felony, a prisoner should no longer be treated as a human?

[AlHayatZween 2]

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

How high is "too high"?

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Those poor criminals. Prisoners should have more rights. They should be given Perrier to drink.

[mox 298]

Ah yes, because everything HAS to be an extreme, doesn't it?

[HAL 9000 96]

Ah yes, because everything HAS to be an extreme, doesn't it?

Remember, There can be Only One.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Those poor criminals. Prisoners should have more rights. They should be given Perrier to drink.

I take it you've never had a friend or relative sentenced to prison?

[Ban Hammer 13,355]

Those poor criminals. Prisoners should have more rights. They should be given Perrier to drink.

I take it you've never had a friend or relative sentenced to prison?

you have?

and btw, a brother in law from my first marriage was a convicted felon.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Those poor criminals. Prisoners should have more rights. They should be given Perrier to drink.

I take it you've never had a friend or relative sentenced to prison?

you have?

and btw, a brother in law from my first marriage was a convicted felon.

Yes and I don't think of them any less for it. While I don't think prison should be a resort, the prisoners deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

[Ban Hammer 13,355]

Those poor criminals. Prisoners should have more rights. They should be given Perrier to drink.

I take it you've never had a friend or relative sentenced to prison?

you have?

and btw, a brother in law from my first marriage was a convicted felon.

Yes and I don't think of them any less for it. While I don't think prison should be a resort, the prisoners deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

with the former bil, it wasn't really a surprise - auto insurance fraud. and i'll agree on the part of it not being a resort.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Those poor criminals. Prisoners should have more rights. They should be given Perrier to drink.

I take it you've never had a friend or relative sentenced to prison?

you have?

and btw, a brother in law from my first marriage was a convicted felon.

Yes and I don't think of them any less for it. While I don't think prison should be a resort, the prisoners deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.

with the former bil, it wasn't really a surprise - auto insurance fraud. and i'll agree on the part of it not being a resort.

I knew a young woman from church whose mother was sent to prison for check fraud. While the behavior is despicable, I don't think that takes away the love her daughter has for her, or the fact that her mother is still a human being and deserves to be treated as one.

[Jasman0717 9]

As Artie Lange says 'waaaaaaaa'

[Amby 490]

they shouldn't have to drink that water, they should be let out!