Non-profit aims to prevent deaths
OCOTILLO – Although the non-profit Water Station project has been operating in Imperial Valley for the past 18 years, its existence remains largely unknown to the general public.
Whatever awareness does exist about the organization, it tends to come with misperceptions about its intended purpose, said president Julio Cesar Perez.
“It’s not about race. It’s not about politics. It’s about human life,” Perez said. “It’s a humanitarian effort.”
Since its founding, Water Station’s efforts have been focused on reducing migrants’ heat-related deaths during the summer by placing caches of water in the remote desert of the county’s eastern border.
The so-called water stations consist of 50-gallon plastic drums that are typically filled with about a half-dozen gallon-sized water jugs and located along various routes that are frequented by immigrants in the country illegally.
Missing water jugs are typically sure signs that the stores are being used as intended, although vandalism and meddling by wildlife are both constant problems.
Nor is it uncommon for volunteers to find notes and money left behind by off-road and outdoor enthusiasts who have had to rely on the water stations in times of emergency.
One such example involved a Navy hospital corpsman whose companion, suffering from heat exhaustion, was saved from further harm by the unexpected discovery of a water station during their trek through the remote desert, Perez said.
Not long after that incident, the corpsman found himself and his vehicle stuck in the desert’s soft sand until a Water Station volunteer came along and helped pull his vehicle free.
As a result of both encounters, the corpsman began inquiring about the water stations and promised the volunteer that he would also return to volunteer.
“Very few people actually follow
through with that, but this guy actually did,” Perez said.
Currently, the non-profit is undertaking an outreach campaign that it hopes could potentially drum up additional volunteers and funding, although Perez said he suspects the current political climate may act as a deterrent.
Through the years, Water Station has operated on an annual “shoestring” budget of about $15,000, with most of that coming from established partners and supporters.
Its expenses include the necessary Bureau of Land Management and California State Parks permits allowing it to operate on their lands, as well as costs associated with water supplies, liability insurance, flags for the stations, as well as registration, fuel and insurance for a pair of donated full-size pickup trucks.
“We’ve always been scraping by, but we’ve managed to do it,” Perez said.
Water Station had originally been founded by Escondido resident and retired physicist John Hunter, brother of former U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon.
The activism of John Hunter, a staunch Republican, is also credited with prompting the Imperial Irrigation District to install buoys across the All-American Canal in an effort to reduce the number of drownings there, too.
“He’s like the black sheep of the family,” said Nikolai Beope, Water Station’s communications officer.
On Saturday, Beope was part of a two-vehicle team of volunteers that fanned out across the desert here to check on the water stations that lie parallel to the abandoned railroad tracks that head northward from Ocotillo to Carrizo Gorge.
The presence of two vehicles allowed the volunteers to alternately review the water stations, or “hopscotch,” cutting down on the two hours it typically takes to review the route’s 16 or so stations.
Beope, originally from San Diego, is the only Valley resident who currently serves on the non-profit’s board of directors.
During his six years with the non-profit, Beope said he has seen it adapt well to changing circumstances, despite its small budget.
It recently had considered halting its activities; however, that idea was shortlived after having encountered two migrants in the desert who had been lost without water for more than a day, Beope said.
Water stations are typically installed in locations that are known to be frequented by immigrants in the country illegally. In the past, the non-profit was able to obtain maps from the Border Patrol on an annual basis that identified where migrant deaths had occurred, allowing volunteers to relocate water stations accordingly.
“But we haven’t gotten them anymore for the past two years,” Beope said.
Its agreements with the BLM and the state parks system also stipulate that only water can be left at the stations and prohibits the storing of items such as clothing or food.
Before there was the Water Station project, there was Borrego Springs resident Francisco Murillo, who had banded with a small group of neighbors who devoted themselves to leaving water containers in the desert near Ocotillo Wells for migrants.
Eventually, that informal humanitarian group disbanded, while Murillo’s efforts continued.
“I kept helping,” he said.
When Hunter had sought to establish Water Station, he approached Murillo for help. Murillo is now one of the non-profit’s longest-serving members.
“I have mad respect for that guy,” Perez said, referring to Murillo.
For more information about Water Station and how to volunteer, go to www. waterstations.org, as well as its Facebook and Instagram pages.