State legislators listen to Valley residents affected by contaminated water

OROSI, Calif. (KFSN) -- On Friday, two state legislators met with residents of Valley communities plagued by water contamination problems.

It was a bipartisan tour, and the first stop was at Bertha Diaz's home in East Orosi.

Due to contamination from surrounding agricultural operations, the water at her home has unsafe levels of nitrates.

She relies on a limited supply of bottled water for cooking and drinking purposes but hopes one day she can have clean drinking water for her family.

State Senator Ed Hernandez and Assemblyman Devin Mathis listened with concern and committed to working together in Sacramento to reach a solution.

"It's a broken system that I walked into when I got elected," Mathis said. "And my intent is to get it fixed and to get it solved because families in California, families in America, shouldn't be going through this."

Other stops on today's tour included Lanare, west of Riverdale, and Alpaugh, south of Corcoran. Both of those communities have water contaminated by arsenic.