The Monterey Park Tract has two main streets and fewer than 200 residents, almost exclusively Black and Latino. Like many areas of rural Stanislaus County, it relies on septic systems and has no gutters or sidewalks.
The community once known as Sand Hill because of its alluvial soil was founded in 1941 when jobs in Stockton to support the war effort ran out and people built houses on small lots in Stanislaus County where there was farm work.
When county leaders applied for a grant in the early 1980s to help Monterey Tract residents get access to clean water, they did not do enough to prevent long-term contamination.
How did the water become contaminated?
There is a dairy next to the community and a hog farm next to that, with orchards to the north and east. When dairies and agriculture moved in, so did water contamination, residents said…