Thermal's Oasis Mobile Home Park didn't maintain safe drinking, waste water, lawsuit alleges
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sued the operator of Thermal's Oasis Mobile Home Park on Monday, alleging it has failed for years to maintain safe drinking and waste water systems for as many as 1,500 residents.
The civil complaint asks a federal judge to order the park's management to address the unsafe conditions, comply with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and pay a penalty whose amount hasn't been determined.
The danger posed to the residents by the unsafe water systems has for years plagued the park, which is located on land owned by the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, spurring several responses from local, state and federal officials looking to address it.
The suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, follows the Riverside County Board of Supervisors' decision in April to dedicate $15 million from a state grant to a program to help residents move out of the park. But while the county's action focused on relocating residents, the federal suit focuses on holding the park's operators accountable.
"This complaint is an outcome of many years of failure by the operators of the Oasis Mobile Home Park to follow EPA’s orders and provide safe drinking water and sanitation to the families living in their park," said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman in a prepared statement. "We now seek action by a federal court to enforce our orders, to provide justice to the residents that have lived for so long without safe drinking water."
The lawsuit was filed against the administrators of the estate of Scott Lawson, the former owner of the mobile home park, who died in 2021, and a corporation called Lopez to Lawson Inc.
A person who answered the phone at a number listed for the park and the Lawson family said no one was immediately available to comment on the allegations in the suit.
The park's current defective water system uses groundwater that contains naturally occurring arsenic, which if consumed at high levels over time is a known carcinogen and is linked to several other serious ailments such as heart disease and neurologic damage.
"After years of dangerous neglect and non-compliance with and violations of EPA safety orders, the Department of Justice is finally engaged with holding the Oasis Mobile Home owners accountable," said Congressman Raul Ruiz in response to the suit's announcement Monday. "This is welcomed news for our local collaborative efforts to ensure that residents are safe, have access to clean drinking water, and are relocated to affordable and preferential housing options. Enough is enough."
The EPA has for years been demanding changes at Oasis, issuing an emergency order in 2019 for Lawson to address the arsenic levels, which were found to be about 10 times those allowable by law. It was followed by a second order in 2020, after the park switched to a backup well that still had prohibitively high levels of the dangerous chemical. And the department issued a third order in 2021, after the hazards remained unaddressed following Lawson's death that May.
Yet a water test in April 2023 showed high levels of arsenic remained, the EPA said in a news release Monday, adding that it issued an amended order instructing the park's operators to address issues with the park's water storage tanks.
The EPA also said the park's defective wastewater system could allow for contaminants such as E. Coli to enter the drinking water supply. The operators of the park did not properly have a program for managing wastewater for about 90 septic tanks on the property, the department reported. The EPA said it found the wastewater issues persisted during a visit in May 2023.
For years, residents at Oasis have gotten free bottled water and safe water from mobile tanks, paid for at various times by the state, Riverside County, community groups and the park owners.
Christopher Damien covers public safety and the criminal justice system. He can be reached at christopher.damien@desertsun.com or follow him at @chris_a_damien.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Lawsuit: Oasis Mobile Home Park didn't maintain safe water
