A beige school building with "Bearcat Country" signage and a digital display advertising an elementary school event under a blue sky.
The Potter Valley Community Unified School District campus in Potter Valley in Mendocino County, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. The district finished installing a new three-stage water filtration system in late July, the final piece of a treatment plant the state ordered five years ago after classifying the school's only well as surface water. The district paid $39,600.55 out of its own facilities budget; the state has spent $765,815 studying the well since 2017 and nothing building a fix. (Roger Coryell/Bay City News)

MENDOCINO CO., 8/17/26 — For most of this year, the kids at Potter Valley’s elementary school were not allowed to drink from the water fountains. A notice went up on Feb. 9: boil the tap water first, or take the bottled water set out for kids in the cafeteria. It hung there all spring.

This summer, the school district fixed it.

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