Blacks and Hispanics in Texas say they don’t trust the quality of their water

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A new study shows that blacks, Hispanics, and low-income Texas communities are very concerned about the quality of their drinking water.

The survey, commissioned by the nonprofit Texas Water Trade, included responses from 650 households in both rural border areas and urban areas of Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth. Among the respondents, 61% answered that they do not consider their water safe to drink.

“We truly believe that Texas must build a future where all Texans have access to adequate and safe water,” said Charlene Leurig, CEO of Texas Water Trade. “This poll gives us an indication that this is not the reality that low-income Texans think they live in.”

The survey, which is not a scientifically representative sample of the entire state but provides a glimpse into some of the state’s most underprivileged communities, asked questions such as the acceptability of the taste and smell of water in respondents’ homes. About 43% of respondents said the smell of their water was unacceptable, and more than half – 56% – said the taste was unacceptable. More than half of the respondents reported using bottled water as their main source of drinking water.

[A boil-water notice in Houston made national news. In rural Texas, it’s a way of life.]

“It’s important for us to know that the people we interviewed don’t think their water is safe,” Leurig said. “It could be because their water isn’t actually safe to drink, and it could be other reasons why it doesn’t meet the standards we all hold to, like we want the water to taste fresh and clean.” , odorless or discolored. “.

The responses highlight a recurring problem in Texas, especially in financially struggling rural communities. Providing water – not to mention safe water – for everyone in the booming state is a challenge due to aging, cracking infrastructure.

The full survey results will be released during the webinar at 10:00 am on Thursday. The survey was funded by a grant from Lyda Hill Philanthropies to help Texas Water Trade launch a new effort to bring clean, affordable drinking water to low-income communities in Texas: Vida Water.

Water in Texas is a concern for a growing number of local and state leaders and water conservation groups. Over 3,000 boil water notices were issued in Texas last year, reservoirs plummeted by up to 67% due to a devastating drought, and water main breaks resulted in water loss in many communities.

With the infrastructure, water supply, and water quality in Texas escalating into a growing crisis, the state legislature appears to be focusing on the issue. A new bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Rep. Tracey King, D-Batesville, formed the Texas House Water Caucus to educate fellow state lawmakers on water security. And Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s list of 30 priority bills includes one to meet Texas’ future water needs. Details of the bill are not yet available.

The study found that Texans worry most about their water in rural, unincorporated colonies — cheap plots of land outside the city limits that lack basic infrastructure such as water and sewer systems, electricity and paved roads. Some 840,000 mostly low-income Hispanics live in the colonies along the U.S.-Mexico border, and more than 134,000 of them are not served by public water systems, sewage treatment plants, or both, according to a 2015 Rural Communities Partnership report. .

Instead, these residents typically haul water in cisterns or trucks, often from locations more than a dozen miles from their homes. The water is then stored in tanks for days or weeks before it is piped into homes, which can pose a serious risk of waterborne disease. Stored water is also susceptible to contamination by dust or rainwater.

“When water is in a tank, it is not pressurized and is not protected from contact with air,” said Jim Drys, CEO of the Vida Water project. “We learned that the water they drink causes a lot of stomach and gastrointestinal problems.”

Maria Martinez faced these challenges first hand. A 49-year-old man has lived in a colony in El Paso County for the past 15 years. Historically, she did not cook or drink tap water, which is trucked in twice a month. One time, when she was drinking tap water at a neighbor’s house, she became ill.

“We used to have regular water in Ciudad Juarez where we lived, so it was very different to come here and not be able to trust our drinking water,” Martinez said in Spanish.

Martinez recently installed a filter in her home thanks to a student project at the University of Texas at El Paso. The system is expected to save her hundreds of dollars a year that she would have spent on bottled water for cooking and drinking.

Vida Water, which is due to start offering affordable filtration services this summer, will focus on border communities like Martinez that are not connected to public water systems. The company is registered as a public benefit corporation and will offer filtration services at no great upfront cost.

“There is not a single company that sees value in entering these communities and supplying low-cost filtration units,” says Yvonne Santiago, a UT-El Paso professor of engineering who has worked in the El Paso colonies for more than a decade. “So it’s really a dream come true.”

While the highest level of concern was in the colonies, 28% of respondents in the Dallas-Fort Worth area expressed concerns about their water.

According to Mary Guluzza, spokesperson for the Fort Worth Water Department, 86% of Fort Worth water consumers are satisfied or very satisfied with their water, according to a recent survey. And in the municipal water supply system at the moment there are no water violations.

But Gugliuzza added that historically underserved communities no longer trust their water. A national study found that while 75% of white Americans trust their tap water, only about 65% of blacks and Hispanics trust their water.

While the Texas Water Trade Study focuses on specific areas of Texas, water quality is a statewide issue. Carlos Rubinstein, former chairman of the Texas Water Development Board, saw the same problems in the Panhandle and Coastal Bend.

“Not all Texans have the same access to clean water and proper wastewater treatment of the same capacity and quality as any other Texan,” Rubinstein said.

Rubinstein said doubts about water quality can come from several sources — some people may not know where their water comes from, some may read about water problems in other areas, and some may experience problems firsthand.

A common expectation in homes or businesses is that it should be as simple as turning on a faucet and water will flow in response. However, this is not always the case, and Rubinstein said that this may increase doubts.

“When you’re in a dysfunctional community, you realize that either you don’t have proper water pressure, or you have intermittent water supply, or you don’t have water supply at all,” Rubinstein said. “Then it is easy to question the type of investment that has been made in the treatment works that are supposed to provide high quality water.”

Alexa Ura contributed to the report.

Disclosure: The University of Texas at El Paso and the Lyda Hill Philanthropies provided financial support to The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial sponsors play no role in Tribune journalism. Find their complete list here.

Clarification, February 16, 2023, 11:23 am:

A previous version of this article reported that Maria Martinez delivers water once a month. She gets water twice a month.