Drop by Drop: Helping keep water safe and clean in the Coachella Valley

Photo Credit: Marcela Carrillo

Daisy López , 10, who lives in the Eastern Coachella Valley (ECV), reached for her fourth bottle of water.

Plastic after plastic, and after multiple trips to the local recycling center, her mother earned pennies back after buying a case of water.

Such was the nightmarish routine they endured as their community faced arsenic-tainted water.

Eleven years later, López, now 21, can safely use her tap water, though her thoughts are overshadowed by the fear of enduring another decade of contaminated water.

"It was difficult and scary. It's still very scary," Lopez said. "I can't say 'I remember how I didn't have clean water' because this new change [has only been for] a year, but I don't want to go back to that place, and I don't want to step back a year, or years back."

Mobile home park communities in this community have been fighting arsenic-contaminated water for more than a decade, as it poses numerous health risks to residents.

In March 2022, California Congressman Raúl Ruiz secured a $29 million fund to help the "Avenue 66 Clean Water Project." This relief fund provides medical assistance to those who reside in Avenue 66 and will soon grow to ensure that the ECV has clean water indefinitely.

According to Alma Moreno, a 60-year-old East Coachella native and advocate, the community has been battling rising arsenic levels in nearby pipes since 1980.

"I've lived here since the mid-1960s. I remember contaminated water became a problem in the mid to late 1980s, but the [arsenic] levels were too low to be considered a 'hazard,'" Moreno said.

​​Moreno was an early advocate for improved infrastructure, sidewalk construction, and clean drinking water. Although Moreno did not experience the polluted water first hand, she had friends and family who did, and soon began speaking up for those who were not being heard.

“This community has suffered a lot. Farmworkers overcame poor working conditions because people started speaking up,” Moreno said. "This community has always faced issues, which is unfair because our demographic is primarily low-income Latino, we can't offer sponsorships like others can, nor can we act rich because we're just not that."

The 2022 United States Census recorded ECV as 96.6% Hispanic or Latino, marking it as a predominantly Latino community. Additionally, being primarily Latino, around 8,000 residents are farmworkers. Despite instilled biases not to help low-income and Latino families, the community is full of both.

López emphasized the difficulties of living in a predominantly Latino community and the injustices surrounding work, school and life situations.

“My middle school and high school are located on these native lands, and there was a time when drinking fountains were closed off because of contaminated water,” López  said. "But we still drank the water."

Savannah González, 21, a nursing student, commented on the dangers that come from living around contaminated water with a high content of arsenic.

“Living in these conditions carries great risks. If you consume contaminated water for a long time, even a drop, you can develop liver or kidney problems," González explained. "These risks can even develop into cancer."

Residents not only consumed contaminated water, but also bathed in it. López  noted the significant number of breakouts she began to develop and the amount of hair loss she endured.

"There was one day when I woke up with red bumps, and at first my mom thought it might have been chicken pox, since I never had it growing up," López  said. "To our surprise, our doctors chalked it up to 'stress,' but many of us get these rashes."

López's hair began to fall out more than normal, another symptom that added to the "stress" that she was diagnosed with.

These conditions led López and her family to switch to bathing with a bucket and cup, a familiarity from their home country of Mexico.

“We are used to showering like this in Mexico, so it was fine for us,” López  said. "However, taking a shower was a luxury for us, because we had to buy jugs of water in addition to paying the bill for the water we couldn't use."

Fixing the water problem

It wasn't until 2022 that Congressman Ruiz turned to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to help fix the contaminated water crisis, according to his April 2022 press release.

According to López, Ruiz had been dedicated to providing clean and safe drinking water since the beginning of his election, recalling his frequent visits as a guest speaker throughout her academic years.

Originally from Zacatecas City, Mexico, Ruiz grew up in Coachella, California, and has been the representative for California's 25th District since 2012. According to his bio, Ruiz attended UCLA and earned his medical degree from Harvard University.

In 2022, months later, the EPA quickly mandated two mobile home parks to provide safe drinking water. Ruiz then received a $29 million relief fund to build new water transmission lines, beginning at 66th Avenue, located near Thermal and Oasis, California.

A year later, going into 2023, the EPA directed many other mobile park owners to participate in helping provide clean water by delivering cases of bottled water every two weeks to their residents, as more money is acquired to meet the minimum of $200 million allocated to ensure residents and farm workers have safe, clean water.

"I am hopeful for Dr. Raúl Ruiz, and I hope that he can expand this water aid to the entire ECV by fighting against contaminated water," said López. "We all count on him."