The Water of Lost Hills | Water & Power: A California Heist

2m read

·Nov 11, 2024

MARK: Rafaela, I know you feel grateful. Yes. To The Wonderful Company, and they have done things that no farmer will do. Yes.

There's a park now. There's--

Yes, I know. - The roads are better. There's some houses. But the wages are still minimum. And the water is still a problem.

Mm-hmm.

MAN: Arsenic. Yeah, arsenic. Si. So the farm workers don't have water to drink, but the trees have plenty of water to drink. Yeah.

ROSANNA: Almost all the water in this valley is full of toxicity. One of the first things that happened to me when I started working here is-- I was going door to door, visiting residents, and a couple of women said, "Come in, come in." And they offered me a glass of what they were calling, "Lost Hills Lemonade."

And they were laughing about it. And I could smell it. I could smell the chlorine. And that was our introduction to the water here.

Have you asked the water district here why it's coming out yellow?

I have, and their response that I've received is, "Well, it's an infrastructure problem."

Because--

That means it's the pipes in the house?

It's the pipes in the house.

But with all this infrastructure changes, did the Resnicks improve the water system?

No. The infrastructure of the pipes going into people's homes?

No. And this is what we're seeing throughout Kern County. That some areas are parched, and some farms are drying up, because who holds the rights to that water? And who is going to benefit most from being able to grow more pistachios and more pomegranates?

That's the California story. There has always been a fight over the water. And just like any war, it's just collateral damage.

Yeah.

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