Tests show no water hazard after breach at toxic dump in Thermal; evacuation warning lifted
Three weeks after Riverside County declared a local emergency due to potentially contaminated rainwater flooding into three mobile home parks in Thermal, county officials announced Wednesday that sample testing of the water found "no significant health hazard to residents."
The county also lifted an emergency warning Wednesday for the three parks that had been in effect since early September.
The county declared the local emergency after discovering that flash flooding from a Sept. 1 storm that brought nearly 3 inches of rain to the Thermal area caused water from a toxic dump site to flood into three nearby mobile home parks. County crews who surveyed the damage over the Labor Day weekend found a protective berm around the long-closed "Lawson dump," as well as a covering over it, had been breached.
The breach prompted the county to issue an evacuation warning for the San Jose Mobile Home Park, Vargas Mobile Home Park and Gamez Mobile Home Park, with officials urging residents to avoid contact with rainwater and runoff until further notice, and to contact their doctor or visit a local health clinic if they were not feeling well. Area roads such as Pierce Street and Avenue 69 saw major flooding from the storm.
Earlier this month, outreach officials told The Desert Sun that none of the parks’ residents had chosen to evacuate to the shelter set up at the Galilee Center in Mecca. The county confirmed Wednesday that no residents used the shelter while the warning was in effect.
In the days after the storm, county environmental health officials gathered rainwater samples to test for any toxic materials, initially saying the results would be released within two days. A couple days later, on Sept. 7, county officials said the testing results were now expected within 10 days due to “the specialized testing required.”
After the testing took many days longer than expected, county officials said Wednesday they lifted the warning upon getting the analysis, which found trace amounts of toxins — including elevated levels of some metals — but not enough to pose a health hazard.
The test results showed no detection of volatile organic compounds or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — both of which can contain cancer-causing chemicals.
Another factor in lifting the warning was that the area’s rainwater — which initially made vehicle access to some parks a challenge — had receded, county health officials said.
“We are pleased to learn the results and more importantly to know our residents were not in danger,” Supervisor V. Manuel Perez said in the announcement Wednesday.
The specialized testing, which was done at the direction of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was analyzed by both state and county health officials.
Dump's issues with toxins go back decades
The dump, which was owned by Kim Lawson and has been closed since 2007, has a history of environmental issues going back decades.
The EPA says that in 1999 it issued a notice of violation to the operators of the dump that was ignored. Three years later, the EPA found elevated levels of dioxin, which is a highly toxic chemical that is known to cause cancer, reproductive issues and other problems.
Later that year, the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians began monitoring the air along the tribe’s border with the dump and found readings showing the presence of particulates in concentrations above “levels considered safe to human health and the environment.” In 2003, the EPA ordered the dump’s owners to stop burning solid waste at the site after it says it ignored a similar order from the tribe.
In 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported that the dump had been closed after the EPA found arsenic, asbestos, dioxin and other chemicals that resulted from the burning of paint cans and wood treated with hazardous chemicals. That same year, a Riverside County judge fined the dump and ordered him to pay $46.9 million to clean up the site.
The Times also reported that fires continued to be an issue at the dump in 2007 even after it was closed, with many of them believed to have started from “spontaneous combustion” while others were labeled “suspicious.”
Perez, who represents the area, said earlier this month that the Lawson dump was “ordered closed but never cleaned up,” describing it as the largest toxic dump in California.
Tom Coulter covers the cities of Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells. Reach him at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Tests show no health hazards after breach at toxic dump in Thermal
