This story first appeared in KERA News and Inside Climate News. It is the first in a series produced with the support of Investigative Editing Corps as part of a pilot project with Report For America.
The Beltrán family always stocks two to three cases of bottled water in the cluttered garage of their home in Grand Prairie, Texas. They’ve used it to drink and cook for 15 years. And they trek to the nearest Walmart to stay fully stocked.
“We got here and the water was salty, super salty,” Santa Barbara Beltrán, 72, said in Spanish. “We buy jugs of water for cooking.”
