Kern county

Last month, the Comité Lost Hills En Accion, a group of community members that I work with to advocate for public health and community wellbeing measures in Lost Hills, invited representatives from Caltrans to do a presentation on the expansion of Highway 46. Highway 46, which runs through the Lost Hills community, is also known as a "Blood Alley" for the high number of motor-related deaths that take place on it. The current Caltrans proposal is to expand the highway from 2 lanes to 4 lanes.

What's behind the recent headlines on California groundwater? Does a new study suggest the problem is solved, and that we can all go home? Er...no! 

On June 6, 2016 we said goodbye to Helen Fabela Chavez, a first generation Mexican American, wife, mother, activist, union bookkeeper and visionary, born in Brawley, California. 

This blog is in response to David Brooks’ recent op-ed published in the New York Times on May 17, focused on improving the health and lives of residents in Lost Hills, California, a community in which I work with Clean Water Action. We submitted a letter to the editor to the paper in response to Mr. Brooks' article, but the editors chose not to publish it. Still, you might want to read Mr. Brooks' piece before you dive in, here. 

Kern County is the "belly of the beast" for the California's oil and gas industry, where almost 80 percent of the state's oil is produced. It’s where the vast majority of the environmental and health fallout is.

For some reason, California STILL allows oil and gas companies to dump their toxic wastewater in open and unlined pits.

Lately I’ve been thinking about signs I’ve seen scattered around neighborhoods in Bakersfield with the proclamation, “Bakersfield – Life As It Should Be.” They’re kidding, right?

Last week, regulators approved the expanded use of oil wastewater for irrigation of crops in Kern County.