FOWLER – Though concerns over contamination have been making waves, a recent response to a civil grand jury report shows promising signs for Fowler’s drinking water.
On Dec. 2, the Fowler City Council approved a response to the Fresno County Civil Grand Jury’s report of an investigation into the city’s handling of drinking water contaminants. Though the report identified key areas of improvement, and outlined specific steps that should be taken, the overarching conclusion was that the city of Fowler is on its way to resolution.
“I’m really glad that someone approached the grand jury,” Councilmember Karnig Kazarian said during his comments. “They got it done and saw that we have been diligent with it, and we have run into problems, but we’re moving forward.”
The report, “How is the City of Fowler Addressing Water Contamination?,” was released earlier this year, giving some background on Fowler’s 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) water contamination and the methodology used in the investigation. The report provided six findings, and six recommendations to address them.
The findings read as follows:
- Not all City of Fowler Public Works, Water Department operators knew written procedures and/or checklists existed for their day to day operation tasks as the procedures were recently developed for the department by the new Public Works Director.
- The City of Fowler’s water reports are submitted occasionally late to SWRCB (State Water Resource Control Board) due to the absence of the report deadline checklists to remind users.
- The City of Fowler Public Works, Water Department website information is not organized in a user friendly, searchable format and is outdated, with the most recent reports not being added in a timely period.
- A maintenance and budget plan for the ongoing operation of the soon to be installed GAC (Granular Activated Carbon) filtration system in the City of Fowler has not been developed.
- While only one of the City of Fowler’s six wells is above the CA-MCL (State Maximum Contaminant Level) for TCP, all wells, including the TCP contaminated well, must be utilized to satisfy consumer demands and fire protection requirements.
- The City of Fowler has been aware of elevated TCP levels in Well #7 since 2018; however, funding to mitigate TCP contamination was delayed because of litigation.
The corresponding recommendations primarily boiled down to providing more thorough training and checklists for employees, establishing clearer procedures for timely reporting, budgeting for the upcoming filtration system’s maintenance and planning for future water demands.
Though the report highlighted some past missteps, it also found that Fowler’s Public Works, Water Department is working “diligently and collaboratively” with other city entities to meet water needs, and has seen noticeable improvements over the last year.
The report explains that Fowler is far from the only city that’s had to address TCP contamination, with high rates of detection in Kern, Fresno and Los Angeles counties. It was used in pesticides beginning in the 1950s, where it seeped into groundwater and eventually into the drinking water. TCP is considered a microplastic and breaks down slowly, making it a persistent contaminant.
Fowler has been working to meet the TCP standard since 2018, when it was discovered that Well No. 7 was slightly above the state limit, but has faced multiple roadblocks in the process.
Firstly, the city lacked the funding needed to install the GAC filtration system, which would help to remove contaminants like TCP. In an effort to recover the costs of the system, the city filed a lawsuit against companies that put TCP into pesticides used by farms. The lawsuit began in 2018 and was not resolved until 2021 for $5 million, but even then, the funds were not received all at once.
Once funding was eventually secured, planning began. Design engineers reached about 60% completion when it was found that the city did not own the additional land needed to implement the system. The issue was eventually resolved in March 2023 after a property acquisition agreement was completed.
According to the city’s response, the GAC facility is expected to be completed in early spring, 2026.
With regards to the findings related to procedures, training and reporting, the response agrees with all of the report’s findings, and plans to implement the remaining recommended solutions by March 31, 2026.
There is still a fair amount of work to be done to get the city’s contaminant levels where they need to be, but during comments, council members thanked staff such as Public Works Director Mike Rocha for helping to lay the groundwork for the ongoing solutions.
“You always cringe when you hear about a civil grand jury report, but I know that when Mike (Reid) and I spoke, you put me at ease and said ‘No, this report actually validates the work we’ve been doing as a city,’” said Mayor Juan Mejia in his comments. “So kudos to everybody who put all the work in for us to shine on this report.”
