WELDON, Calif. — A small community in the mountains northeast of Lake Isabella has been dealing with confusion over water quality issues.
A notification was sent out to customers of Tradewinds Water Association in the last quarter of 2023, stating incorrectly, that the levels of uranium in their tap water were more than 1,700 times the legal limit.
This information ended up being incorrect.
Once the mistake was brought to the attention of the water association, President of Tradwinds Water Association Tate Nagle told 23ABC they would send out a correction.
Weldon resident Madison Lundberg says she has gotten used to these notices from Tradewinds, which she remembers getting since 2022.
“Just the annual update to the group chat, like, 'Oh hey guys, got another uranium notice,'” Lundberg said.
Tradewinds Water Association serves roughly 300 people in the Weldon area. After one of their two groundwater wells exceeded the maximum contaminant limit for uranium in March 2022, the State Water Board directed Tradewinds to send uranium level notices quarterly, even if the levels don’t go above the maximum contaminant level that quarter until the board considers the problem resolved.
This was one of multiple directives laid out in a compliance order sent to Tradewinds by the State Water Board on March 16, 2022.
“I think I should be more concerned about it, but growing up here you kind of just get used to the fact that your water probably isn’t the safest. It’s like yeah it’s uranium, what can I do about it, I can’t move,” said Lundberg.
The error on the most recent notice stemmed from how uranium levels in water can be measured. Milligrams per liter is the metric on the notification template supplied by the water board.
On the form sent out, it was filled out to say there were an average of 17 milligrams per liter of uranium in the water system for that quarter, and that the maximum contaminant level for uranium was 0.01 milligrams per liter.
The 17 was the measurement of the uranium in the water in picoCuries per liter.
Sydney Evans, Senior Science Analyst with the Environmental Working Group specializes in cumulative risk and exposure analysis of drinking water contaminants.
“Both are valid, there is just a conversion factor,” Evans explained.
The Compliance Order sent out in March 202 also directed Tradewinds to create an action plan to prevent the water system from exceeding the legal limit of uranium again. Twice they’ve been cited and fined for not complying with this directive, once in March of 2023 and once in July 2023.
The President of Tradewinds Water Association told me over the phone that they submitted their action plan to avoid going over uranium levels in August 2023.
However, in an email from Blair Robertson, Public Information Officer State Water Resources Control Board, Robertson wrote,
“The State Water Board has not yet received a formal corrective action plan from Tradewinds Water Association. The State Water Board staff had a meeting on January 5, with the president of Tradewinds WA to discuss its plan to achieve compliance with the uranium MCL, which is going to be blending treatment of their two wells. Their Well 02 has a lower uranium level than the uranium MCL. As part of this proposal, they would be blending water from Well 02 with Well 03 and periodically monitor the uranium level in the blended water leaving their storage tank. The blending treatment proposal is expected to be received in the next few weeks after the water association installs a variable frequency drive (VFD) on Well 03 (high uranium well) to lower the production capacity (gallons per minute) of Well 03, to have a reliable and consistent blending treatment.”
“We deserve that, we pay every month and I think the least they could do is make sure it’s safe,” said Weldon Resident Tia Durant.
On October 18th, 2023, the last time uranium in the wells was tested, the level of uranium in Well 03 of Tradewinds water system was at 20 picoCuries per liter.
These are publicly available numbers, and you can visit this website and type in code 1500406 to look at contaminant levels in Tradewinds’ water system.
20 PicoCuries per liter is the maximum contaminant level for tap water in California but doesn’t necessarily mean that water below that number won’t have adverse health effects
“California has a public health goal for uranium of 0.43 picoCuries per liter. So not 20, but 0.43. That is the health goal, but that is not a legal limit. These utilities are not bound by that,” said Graddy.
“Just having a general water filter, like a granular activated carbon filter, which is what Brita, and a number of other models are, is typically not going to be effective for uranium unfortunately. It’s just not a contaminant that can be filtered out by that kind of technology. There are filters that you can have at home that will work, but you have to have some sort of ion-exchange or reverse osmosis element,” Graddy said.
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