DIRTY WATER?
IID director lambasts study suggesting canal water contaminated
EL CENTRO — Norma Sierra Galindo, Division 5 director is fuming over a study that may suggest water delivered by canals in Imperial County could be contaminated by industrial and agriculture runoff and therefore could place the health of customers downstream at potential risk.
“The results of this study can have devastating impacts to Imperial Valley farms and vulnerable communities due to inaccurately collected water-quality data,” Galindo said during the board’s regular meeting on Sept. 11. “If our water supply were to be called to question by an inaccurate study, country living may become unaffordable, and produce farmers and workers could suffer the extreme impact of quarantined crops for fear of chemical or biological contamination due to food safety concerns and cautions, when in fact no such contamination exists in main or lateral canals … servicing the farms and rural homes.”
At issue is an ongoing pilot study being conducted by the University of Washington in partnership with Comite Civico del Valle and the California Environmental Protection Agency to identify potential locations where industrial or agriculture pollution could collect before being used in the about 2,800 private homes where canal water is the only source of tap water. The study was highlighted in Water Deeply’s “Toxic Taps,” published on Sept. 29, 2017, online at https:// www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2017/09/29/ video-these-california-residents-rely-on-untreated-canal-water.
During the four-minute video, a team visits what appears to be a collecting pool at an undisclosed private residence somewhere in Imperial County. The water in the cistern is full of fish and algae — having been delivered from the Colorado River via the All-American Canal — and is used, according to the narrator, as the only source of tap water in the home.
Luis Olmedo, Comité Civico del Valle executive director, in the video says such raw water may be contaminated by industrial or agricultural runoff before making its way to homes for residential use.
“It all ends up in peoples’ homes,” Olmedo said in the video.
According to the video, the water that flows into homes from the tap and shower is raw canal water with little or no filtration, although no source is attributed to substantiate that claim.
If potentially contaminated water were be used for residential purposes, including in the shower, it could have a detrimental impact on children and the elderly, Olmedo said in the video.
“The University of Washington staff has asserted … that the water is contaminated, and Comite Civico has alleged that our canal water may contain such contaminants as uranium,” Galindo said.
“For the record, to date, neither the Imperial County Public Health Department nor the IID has any record of anyone becoming ill or injured by water delivered by canals. Instead, Imperial Irrigation District has made a [concerted] effort to ensure all rural homes serviced by water delivered by canal also have access to drinking water. IID is proud to offer programing that provides free delivery of potable water for low-income residents unable to afford it. “
The video claims not all residents can afford imported drinking water for household use, and therefore is forced to drink raw canal water.
“Every house out there, every pipe account we have, has to show proof that they get potable water delivered to them by a verified vendor,” Bruce Kuhn, IID Division 2 director, said during the Sept. 11 meeting. “We have been doing that for quite some time.”
Scientific validity questioned
Galindo questions the methodology used to make an assessment about the presence of contaminated water.
“I am concerned about the accuracy of any samples to be collected by Comite Civico del Valle based on the organizational staff’s apparent lack of formal scientific training and expertise,” Galindo said, adding that such “citizen scientists” may not be qualified to do the work.
“I do not believe that untrained [and] unsupervised volunteers are adequately equipped or apt to produce accurate and verifiable scientific knowledge that can be relied upon by policymakers when determining the safety of Imperial Valley’s sole water supply,” she said. “The IID is not responsible for water past the point of delivery. Yet it seems that Comité Civico del Valle may be collecting water samples from inside homes and cisterns that do not accurately reflect the quality of water delivered.”
To date, no samples have been collected as part of the pilot study, said Vanessa Galaviz, former University of Washington outreach of education director.
“No, that is not the case,” Galaviz told Imperial Valley Press from her home in Sacramento Monday afternoon. “There have been a lot of inaccurate statements by IID and the farm workers regarding the work. This is just to develop information on the extent of exposure to lateral canal water contaminants in the population where data is currently lacking.”
Furthermore, the methods used as part of the pilot study are scientifically viable, Galaviz said.
“We are using solid methodology that will help us generate hypotheses,” she said. “One of those is being able to have the quantitative measures of water contaminants, if any exist. Nobody knows if any exist. That is the question here. We are using high-impact area analysis to understand impacted locations and population vulnerability. These are all methods that are scientifically valid and have been used on other pilot exposure studies.”
Galaviz said input from residents who receive raw water deliveries and any concerns they may have is essential.
“We are also using semi-quantitative and qualitative measures to kind of elucidate the special exposure sources specific to the population,” she said. “What that really means is we don’t know anything that is going on, and that is a question we are trying to address. What are the concerns? Are there any concerns that could be helpful and could be utilized?”
Galaviz added she wants to work collaboratively with IID “to maximize any opportunity for benefits.”
Cost of infrastructure
Galindo said the study may lead to government requirements mandating IID install a piped water system to deliver treated water to the rural homes it currently serves, which would be impossible to pay for.
Kuhn also is worried about such an outcome.
“I have some really big concerns with the unintended consequences for their actions.”
In 1995, Kuhn fought similar efforts by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“We battled this thing,” he said. “Bottom line here is the same thing. They wanted us to provide potable water to every house in the county. The only way that could have possibly been done [would be to install] a pipe system down every rural road or canal bank. The cost of that facility back in 1995 was $120 million. That has to have doubled, almost tripled by now” due to inflation and increased population in rural areas.
To pay for the infrastructure, homeowners at the time would have faced a water bill of $1,200 a month, he said.
Ultimately, IID defeated EPA efforts to install the system.
“We fought the hell out of it,” Kuhn said, noting that was the reason he ran for a position on the IID board of directors in the mid-1990s. “We put it to bed. It’s been done.”
Now, he fears, history may repeat itself.
“God save us from the EPA,” Kuhn said. “We are OK. We don’t need carpetbaggers from Washington coming in here to tell us how to do it. We are not dying. We are not getting sick. We have a program. We have potable water in our country homes. Just please, leave us alone.”
Health issue
It all comes done to improving the quality of life for Imperial Valley residents, Olmedo told Imperial Valley Press Monday afternoon over the phone from his Brawley office.
“We want to make sure that people are coming in contact with water that is not contaminated,” he said. “It is very important that our leaders locally are helping our communities get the right information versus agitating people in a way that seems unproductive to me. I think it is important to look at all concerns and be able to come up with solutions that are suitable for our region.”
Olmedo said IID is figuratively shooting the messenger.
“It seems that way,” he said. “To us, there is an academic institution, a government agency that has an interest in improving the quality of life and public health. We are going to support those efforts. But it seems there are other political situations that are happening that are outside of our purview, and I don’t quite understand those political motivations.”
IID staff curently is finalizing a letter to University of Washington President Ana Marie Cauce condemning the pilot study, with the IID board of directors set to approve the letter either during its regular meeting at 1 p.m. today at William R. Condit Auditorium, 1285 Broadway, in El Centro, or at a later unspecified date.
The entirety of the Sept. 11 IID meeting can be viewed online at http://imperialid.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=466