LAMONT, Calif. (KERO) — The California Water Resources Control Board has made a grant available to the City of Lamont to make improvements to the city's water supply. The $25 million dollar grant will facilitate the construction of three replacement wells and a new water treatment system.
The current water wells are 70 years old and starting to fail, leading residents to rely on bottled water. Board president for the Lamont Public Utility District Timteo Prado has lived in Lamont all his life and says the issue of safe, clean drinking water is personal.
"I personally live here. My mom lives here. I have 2 siblings that own houses who live here, and I have several family members who live here, and I think that guarantees the importance of what this means for the community, I think, beyond the measure," said Prado.
Prado has been a longtime advocate for safe, affordable drinking water in Lamont, even speaking with state politicians about the issue. He says the improvements to how water is supplied to area residents won't just benefit Lamont, but also El Adobe, a smaller district that serves 81 parcels of land.
Scott Taylor, general manager for the Lamont Public Utiltiy District, describes what the funding will actually cover.
"An entire three well-sites from start to finish, from raw ground, dirt to the end product," said Taylor.
Taylor says the water issues do not come from nitrate or arsenic, problems, but from trichloropropane, also known as TCP. Taylors says that's where the new water treatment facility will come in.
"So those TCP concerns and any other constituents will be resolved through grant funding with the addition of water treatment," said Taylor.
This project is not new to the community. These latest additions are Phase 2 of an ongoing project. California Water Resources Control Board Chard Joaquin Esquivel says Phase 1 was providing $5 million dollars for an emergency replacement well. That well took roughly nine months to complete.
Esquivel says although Lamont's water is currently meeting standards, their goal is to secure safe water for future generations.
"We're concerned that we're gonna have a lot more challenges with our water systems, so these investments, the ability to get ahead, is gonna be really important to ensure what we call in California 'the human right to water,'" said Esquivel.
LPUD says the water they've drawn from test wells has been coming back clean. They say Phase 2 will begin sometime next year, and they expect to complete this phase within the next 3 years.
