By Lisa McEwen, SJV Water
Residents of Allensworth are on the cusp of finally solving water issues that have plagued the town for more than 100 years and kept it from growing.
Engineers will be accepting bids through July 31 to construct a new well for the 530-resident town in southern Tulare County. The $3.8 million project, funded by the state, will include an arsenic treatment system that will blend water from the town’s three existing wells.
“The town’s demise came about because of water so to see it revitalized with more water and safer water is a great moment.”
Sherry Hunter, Allensworth Community Services District President
The new well, though, is just the tip of Allensworth’s water momentum.
Once the well is complete, the Allensworth Community Services District will embark on construction of a 500,000-gallon storage tank to replace an existing 40,000-gallon tank, said Sherry Hunter, president of the Allensworth CSD.
The well and tank project had been delayed about seven years because of environmental concerns about the tank’s location, which was habitat for the endangered blunt-nosed leopard lizard.
“The new well and storage tank will help delivery to homes, but the pipes are old and need to be replaced,” she said. “If we can get money to do the infrastructure for delivery to homes, that would be a great help.”
She said the town has not been able to add new connections because the system just can’t handle it.
“We had to constantly monitor the amount of new connections that we were able to allow on the system,” Hunter said. “We didn’t know which one might break it.”
Hunter said once hurdles are cleared for the tank, the community will also begin looking for construction funds to upgrade its entire water system, including sewer services. All residents are on septic tanks, and the goal is to convey wastewater from the septic tanks to a centralized treatment plant.
Consulting firm Stantec was named a limited scope administrator for Allensworth’s water system in 2024 to help the Allensworth CSD move the projects forward.
“Allensworth is really good at getting money. They need help implementing the projects because they do not have the capacity to do all the contracting,” said Denise England, grants and resource manager with Tulare County Resource Management Agency.
Allensworth is a good example of how the state’s administrator program can help rural communities, she added.
Water contamination, dry wells and limited wastewater infrastructure have stymied growth in numerous small, rural San Joaquin Valley towns.
Hunter said the CSD regularly receives inquiries from developers to build homes but without an adequate sewer system in place, “no realtor will touch it.”
Now, Hunter is looking forward to a more water-secure future for her town.
“I am so excited that we’re at this point,” she said. “It’s finally happening.”
Allensworth was founded in 1908 by Col. Allen Allensworth, a former slave. From the beginning, the town was beset by water problems as the aquifer is laced with naturally occurring arsenic and the company that sold the land to Col. Allensworth backed out of a promise to build an adequate water system.
That crippled the growing town with debt and dry wells. Drought and racial discrimination further hindered its economic progress and many residents moved away.
“The town’s demise came about because of water so to see it revitalized with more water and safer water is a great moment,” Hunter said.
Bids on the new well will be accepted until July 31 at Dee Jaspar and Associates, Inc. in Bakersfield. Job walks are scheduled for July 8 and July 22. For directions, call Curtis Skaggs at (661) 393-4796.
