CVWD pushes for safe water in disadvantaged communities

Anna Rumer
The Desert Sun
CVWD is forming the new Disadvantaged Communities Infrastructure Task Force.

The largest provider of water in the Coachella Valley is taking steps to provide safe drinking water to historically disadvantaged desert regions as part of a nationwide push to better serve the nearly 700,000 people in California whose water does not meet safety standards

The Coachella Valley Water District announced on Feb. 2 that it has formed a new Disadvantaged Communities Infrastructure Task Force comprised of representatives from local underserved communities, government agencies and nonprofits to ensure everyone in the region has access to safe and affordable water.

CVWD serves about 109,000 residential and business customers, primarily in Riverside County, and estimates that about 10,000 Coachella Valley residents relying on private wells for water are not drinking water that is up to state code. The majority of these people live in the east valley, in historically underprivileged areas such as Mecca and Thermal, where almost half the population lives under the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census. In addition to the estimated hundreds of private wells and small systems, two public water systems—Saint Anthony Trailer Park in Mecca and Oasis Gardens Water Co. in Thermal—are both out of compliance due to higher-than-permitted levels of arsenic in the water, according to data published by the State Water Resources Control Board.

Arsenic contamination, in addition to that of chromium-6 and microbes from nearby septic systems, is linked to health issues such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and kidney problems amongst others. But depending on bottled water, as many people with unsafe drinking water do, is expensive, and results in a high consumption of sugary sodas or juices, according to Mariela Magana with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability.

Magana grew up in the east valley, first in Thermal and then in Coachella as she got older. She remembers not being allowed to drink from the faucet as a kid, and the financial hardship of subsisting through the week on refilled plastic gallons and bottles of water. She also remembers drinking far more sugary drinks as a kid than she would now as an adult.

"For the most part these are people whose income is very low," she said. "It adds to the other social issues they face ... it really is a multifaceted issue."

The groundwork for the CVWD task force began years ago with Union De Polancos, a group of about 30 mobile home community members who were pushing for the infrastructure that would allow them to connect to the clean water of the CVWD system, according to Cástulo R. Estrada, vice president of the CVWD board of directors, who's spearheading the task force. During his campaign for water board election, Estrada said he spoke a lot with these local advocates, and was moved by their plight.

"These communities have been here for 40 years, 30 years," he said. "They're not just popping up, they've been here."

CVWD's philosophy has long been not to serve people who are not customers of the district, Estrada said, which he thinks is hard to reconcile when there are people nearby who don't have access to clean water.

READ MORE: CVWD finalizes water rates, adopting smaller increases than originally planned

"When I got on the board in 2014, my philosophy was that they're in our service area and we have to take a more proactive approach," he said, "and not rely on the nonprofits."

The task force's goals include pursuing grant funding for short-term solutions such as rebates for the installation of under-the-counter water filters, septic system improvements and well retrofits, as well as long-term solutions such as extending CVWD's infrastructure into areas of need, according to the task force's mission statement.
In addition to seeking out grant funding to connect underprivileged customers to the CVWD, Estrada said he hopes the task force can help influence board policy change, so that the clean water advocacy isn't dependent on outside funding. Like golf courses, which can connect to the CVWD system for free, Estrada says poor communities need to be prioritized.

"We need to be actively pursuing getting these folks connecting in the same way that we pursue connecting golf courses," he said.

Included in the task force are representatives from CVWD's board, the Riverside County Supervisor's Office, Assembly member Eduardo Garcia's office, Pueblo Unido Community Development Corporation, Building Healthy Communities, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Coachella Valley Housing Coalition, Riverside County Transportation and Land Management Agency, mobile home park owners and community members.

READ MORE: Water district to test cheaper treatment to remove chromium-6 from drinking water

The problem of unsafe drinking water extends far beyond the Coachella Valley. According to a map published recently by the State Water Resources Control Board, 292 public water systems serving more than 690,000 people in the state—nearly 2 percent of the population—are currently out of compliance with drinking water standards.

This is unacceptable to the Visalia-based Community Water Center, which was founded in 2006 to address the drinking water problems of California’s Central Valley communities. In a Feb. 7 press phone call, co-founder and co-executive director Laurel Firestone compared California's situation to that of the highly-publicized Flint, Mich. water crisis, in which it was discovered that due to insufficient treatment, more than 100,000 people had been exposed to high levels of lead in their drinking water. In January 2016, a federal state of emergency was called for the city, and residents today are still advised to ingest only bottled or filtered water.

“We’re here today because California has far more people suffering from unsafe drinking water than the population of Flint, Mich.," Firestone said. "Our state needs to address this. We can’t wait any longer. And we look forward to working with the leaders of our state to develop a sustainable source of funding to finally make the human right to water a reality for all Californians.”

The number of Californians without clean drinking water is likely an underestimate, said Jenny Rempel, Director of Education and Engagement for the Community Water Center out of Sacramento, as the data for the map doesn't include chromium-6, perchlorate and a number of bacterial violations, nor does it include more than 1.5 million Californians who get their water from domestic wells and small water systems not regulated by the state.

Putting together a dedicated task force to this issue is a positive step for CVWD, said Phoebe Seaton with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, but it has to be matched by the push statewide for a safe and affordable drinking water fund, which would not only identify the specific need but also look at funding from various sources to promote infrastructure and clean water in communities that have been going without.

Senate Bill 623, which was introduced Friday, would be the first step toward accomplishing that, designating resources to provide clean water across the state.  

"I think what CVWD is doing ... is a critical component that needs to be married with this fund, because right now there isn't the money for (improvements,)" she said.

Overall, Seaton said she's "over the moon" knowing that there will be real progress made towards solving the issue soon.

"There is so much enthusiasm in Sacramento on this, in the capitol and beyond," she said. "We're optimistic, it just feels like this is the year."

Reporter Ian James contributed to this story.

Anna Rumer is a reporter covering the Eastern Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at (760) 285-5490, or on Twitter @AnnaRumer.