---
title: "Oil and Gas Drilling in California Is Tied to Higher Risk of Valley Fever"
description: "People living within about three miles of new wells in Kern County faced 11% higher odds of infection, a study found"
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-09-30T16:39:33.819Z
modified: 2026-09-30T19:24:54Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/oil-and-gas-drilling-in-california-is-tied-to-higher-risk-of-bb04d0
language: en
tags: ["health", "oil", "climate", "drought", "infection", "us"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Oil and Gas Drilling in California Is Tied to Higher Risk of Valley Fever

*People living within about three miles of new wells in Kern County faced 11% higher odds of infection, a study found*

By rews desk · September 30, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/oil-and-gas-drilling-in-california-is-tied-to-higher-risk-of-bb04d0

## In brief

- UC Berkeley researchers found oil and gas well construction raised the odds of Valley fever infection by 11%
- The study compared wells built in California from 2007 to 2022 with case data, focusing on Kern County
- Valley fever comes from Coccidioides fungi in soil; soil disruption sends spores airborne
- The CDC receives about 20,000 reported cases a year, but the true toll is believed to be far higher
- Oil and gas well production is generally declining in California, the study’s authors noted

Oil and gas well construction in California’s San Joaquin Valley raises the odds of contracting Valley fever, a fungal lung infection that can be fatal without treatment, by 11 percent, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, reported this month.

The researchers paired data on every oil and gas well built in California from 2007 to 2022 with Valley fever case records, and zeroed in on Kern County, which has the nation’s highest incidence of the disease and the state’s most intensive oil and gas development. Three-quarters of the county’s residents — 73 percent — lived within about 3 miles of at least one well in its preproduction stage, according to the paper, published in [*The Lancet Planetary Health*](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S254251962600094X).

The infection, also called coccidioidomycosis, comes from two species of Coccidioides fungi that live in soil. Anything that disturbs that soil — wind, farming, construction or drilling — can send spores airborne for miles. Inhaled, the spores can grow in the lungs and spread through the body.

“These findings are novel in that they identify a previously unknown adverse health outcome of oil and gas construction (risk of fungal infection), and a novel route of Valley fever exposure,” said Lisa Couper, the paper’s corresponding author and a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley, in an email.

David González, an assistant professor of environmental sciences at the university’s School of Public Health, said the question followed from what was already known. “For Valley fever, we’re predominantly worried about sources of dust, and we know that oil and gas drilling produces dust,” he said. “So it naturally raised this question of, ‘Could that be causing problems for people with respect to contracting Valley fever?’”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention receive reports of about 20,000 Valley fever cases a year, but a spokeswoman for the agency said the real count is far higher, since many people are never tested or are told they have something else. John Taylor, a professor of plant and microbial biology at Berkeley who has spent years collecting soil samples in the southern Central Valley, put it starkly: “If 1,000 people have this fungus in their lungs, 600 won’t know it.”

The disease can cause fever, cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, joint pain and rashes — symptoms that read as the flu. There is no vaccine.

Outbreaks have followed soil disruption before. From 2011 to 2014, one struck two solar farms in San Luis Obispo County, and in 2024 health officials tied an outbreak that infected nearly 20 people to a music festival in Kern County. Dr. González said deepening drought across the southern Central Valley makes infection more likely, because drier soil means more dust.

Complete protection is not realistic, Dr. Taylor said. “The only way to avoid being infected by this fungus would be to wear a HEPA-filtered, powered full-face mask all the time,” he said. “So nobody’s going to do that. In fact, they don’t even do it when they’re excavating.” He suggested masking could still help workers whose jobs involve digging, from construction crews to solar installers.

Oil and gas well production is generally declining in California, Dr. González said. But he said the risk now belongs on a longer list: “In previous studies, we’ve been focused on the risks from air pollution when you’re drilling a well or the potential for chemicals that are used in well drilling to contaminate water. Now we also know that there’s another concern, which could be the potential for spreading this fungal disease in places where the disease is prevalent.”