The Desert Sun Editorial Board • August 6, 2010
Two bills by Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez to bring clean drinking water to the east valley are moving through the California Legislature without opposition.
A Jan. 31 Desert Sun special report found that as many as 12,000 residents of 19 mobile-home and RV parks had high levels of arsenic in their groundwater.
Assembly Bill 2515, an urgent measure, would require owners of large mobile home parks to install “point-of-use” filters in each unit.
AB 2669 would provide notification in Spanish for people who are affected by contaminated water so they can understand the issue. Most of the residents exposed to potential health risks are poor and Spanish-speakers.
AB 2669 also seeks a $2 million feasibility study to expand the network of Coachella Valley Water District pipelines to parks from Vista Santa Rosa to Mecca.
Both bills sailed through the Assembly without a no vote and await action in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Desert Sun is encouraged that many of the mobile home parks already have installed the filters. Protecting your tenants is the humane thing to do and it's good business.
Nearly 150 residents attended a meeting last month at Desert Mirage High School in Thermal where Pérez, a Democrat from Coachella, and other officials discussed short-term and long-term solutions.
“When community members brought this issue to my attention, I quickly realized there was no ‘quick fix,'” Pérez said in a statement. “Instead, to create lasting solutions, we needed a collaborative and sustained effort involving multiple stakeholders and funding sources.”
The filters are the short-term solution. The long-term solution is a $22 million pipeline. State bonds exist for funding such a project, but they require an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan, which involves water districts and local municipalities working together.
The Desert Sun applauds the efforts to create the integrated plan. We encourage local officials and residents to lend their support.
Nobody, rich or poor, should have doubts about the safety of their drinking water.
Get involved
Residents are urged to participate in the Integrated
Regional Water Management Plan. The community
could receive millions in funding.
For more information: Call Anna Lisa Vargas with
Poder Popular at (760) 899-1036 or Daniel Cozad at
(909) 747-5240 or visit www.cvrwmg.org“At the end of the day, the goal is to centralize the system,” Pérez said.
