Migrant Farm Worker Drinking Water

Safe At The Well?

It was a hot summer's afternoon when the EPA van pulled onto the road leading to a migrant farm worker camp in northern Colorado. The Environmental Justice Program of EPA's Region 8 had been working for two years to determine whether migrant farm workers in Colorado are being served with clean, safe drinking water at their job sites. And, today, Environmental Justice Program staff and staff from the EPA-Region 8 Lab were visiting a camp at the invitation of a local grower to test the water in the well which served the farm workers. Well water was drawn and sealed in clean receptacles. The staff talked briefly with several workers about their use of the well water, thanked the grower for his cooperation and then left to return to Denver.

This was the first of a series of four camps at which the EJ program was invited to sample the drinking water wells. Over the last summer we have visited the fields, sampled water from wells at these camps, analyzed the results and discovered that, in some cases, the water does not meet the federal safe drinking water act standard.

The challenge for us all now is to find the path to solving this environmental justice concern - high levels of nitrates in some drinking water wells. How do we assure that people who are currently at risk receive clean, safe drinking water at the job site? The group most at risk from high nitrate levels are infants (up to about six months of age) and pregnant women. There may be similar environmental concerns with drinking water at other camps, but, until we have the opportunity to test their water, we do not know what we may find.

With up to 40,000 migrant farm workers spending their summers in the produce fields of Colorado, clean drinking water is a must. Migrant farm laborers are among the most vulnerable of our workers. Their income averages only $8,000 per year. Their potential for exposure to pesticides is high and medical care is hard to come by.

Some of the questions which we must now grapple with are: How many workers and children are at risk in Colorado's farm fields? How many camps are there where nitrates (or other contaminants) are present in concentrations above the federal standard in the drinking water wells? What is the most protective solution to the problem of contaminated drinking water wells? Finally, how do we help to make those solutions work?

The answer to these questions will be found by working with our partners in this process; EPA's Drinking Water Program, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the US Department of Labor, Colorado growers and the agencies who serve the needs of migrant farm workers. This summer we will all be working with all of these groups to identify creative solutions to the challenge we have uncovered - assuring that workers in camps do have safe water to drink.

Stay tuned!