Use this version. A few months ago, Jason Kornoff was in a tough spot, facing a room of citizens attending a public meeting about groundwater contamination in their east Los Angeles community. At the time, Kornoff was using 2-D maps of the basin, which painted a static picture of the runoff, but they were misleading, especially in terms of the depth of the contamination.
People are visual animals.
Looking at the computer-generated maps really gives you a sense of how much water in the area is contaminated. The WQA is spearheading the efforts of roughly 15 agencies and community groups working to ensure the safety of the water and to prevent the contamination from spreading to nearby water supplies. Ken Manning, who served two terms as president and is now treasurer of the board that oversees the WQA, said with the advent of the GIS tools, efforts to disseminate information to the public about the problem have been more effective. Elected officials and policy-makers in the valley very well understand the issues relevant to water, much more so than before this tool was used. A key benefit of the GIS tool has been that the public has been able to see a clear picture of where contamination has occurred and also where it has not.