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3. The poor are relying on water bottles and drinking toxic water. As wells and groundwater dry up due to the ongoing drought and nearby agricultural and mining operations, some families in California’s rural San Joaquin and Coachella valleys have (for years) been subsisting on bottled water and consuming potentially hazardous levels of arsenic-laden water, The Washington Post reported. While county officials and local nonprofit groups such as Coachella’s Pueblo Unido are finding ways to generate potable water for their communities, the efforts are expensive and only temporary.
California’s rural poor hit hardest as groundwater vanishes in long drought http://t.co/GHNNdDmJlD pic.twitter.com/2dGdC34GRt
— Civil Eats (@CivilEats) July 6, 2015
4. Seattle isn’t getting any rain. The typically rain-soaked city hasn’t seen more than a tenth of an inch of rain in 42 days, according to local news affiliate KIRO 7. (Fingers crossed that El Nino brings much-needed reprieve to the West).
The West is so dry even a rain forest is on fire http://t.co/YQ3Yw4PX9I
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 13, 2015
Making matters worse, local firefighters have warned that the lack of rain caused by drought is only causing homes to light up faster. “Just like the brush that’s around the area [referring to a mobile home that burned down at Empire View Mobile Home Park], homes are also starting to dry up,” Dave Nelson, public information officer for Skyway Fire Department told the news station.
5. River fish are dying from heat and disease. Record low snowpacks and record high temperatures have caused low-flowing, extra-warm rivers this summer, leading to salmon and trout deaths. As the Associated Press reported, a Wild Fish Conservancy survey of 54 rivers in Oregon, California and Washington revealed that three-quarters were warmer than 70 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature that could be fatal for salmon and trout. In fact, “scores” of dead salmon were found in the Willamette River in June, and about 50 dead sockeye salmon, infected with gill rot disease associated with warm water, were found this week in the Deschutes River, the news agency reported.
Dozens of dead Chinook salmon washing up on the banks of the Willamette River. ODFW blames high water temps. pic.twitter.com/SvCcXcQYOz
— Mark Hanrahan (@mark_hanrahan) June 22, 2015
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