Water Access – East Porterville, CA

In the spring of 2016, Mission Oak Engineering Students were tasked with investigating the town of East Porterville, CA and finding a solution to its water crisis.  Due to California’s six-year drought from 2011-2017, this small, Central Valley town saw its water wells dry up.  Due to East Porterville’s poverty and too-often disenfranchised population, the State and Federal Government did not act to restore water access, leaving thousands of residents with no water for months on end.  Each family was forced to rely upon water truck deliveries for washing water and bottle water donations for drinking.

The Engineering students first visited East Porterville to talk to those in charge of the problem and see firsthand the dire nature of the crisis.  Then, working in groups of four, the students developed and proposed water filtration systems that could be efficiently installed at low-cost in each home.  Their proposals were presented to a group of professionals for feedback and discussion.

While the actual solution to East Porterville’s water crisis ultimately came from the State government making a deal to hook up the residents’ water pipes to the City of Porterville’s water system, the students engaged in real-world thinking to find a solution to a complex problem, learning hard truths of government, politics, money, and inequality in the process.

 

East Porterville Water Crisis – LEAP Engineering Presentation