Evacuations lifted for 3 mobile home parks near Lawson dump

Evacuation warnings were lifted Wednesday for three mobile home parks near a Thermal dump site after rainwater sample tests showed no significant health hazard to residents.

“The decision to issue the evacuation warning was based on the potential health hazards to the residents of the mobile home parks,” Riverside County Public Health Officer Dr. Geoffrey Leung said in a statement. “With more information from test results and the reduction of standing water, it was determined that the evacuation warning could be lifted.”

Only trace amounts of toxins, including elevated levels of some metals, were found in the samples collected from the site, but it wasn’t enough to pose a health hazard, according to a joint statement from the Riverside University Health System and the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health.

Samples were collected from standing flood water near the Lawson Dump Site at the entrance to Vargas Mobile Home Park at Pierce Street, the intersection of 69th Avenue and Pierce Street, and near Jonathan Street, according to the Lawson Environmental Health Report. A control sample was also collected from standing water at an undisclosed location in the Coachella Valley.

Officials said the testing, which was done at the direction of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, was analyzed by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and the Riverside County Public Health Department.

“Many county departments worked together to respond to this emergency prioritizing the health and safety of our residents affected by the flooded waters in the mobile home parks,” Supervisor V. Manuel Perez said in a statement. “We are pleased to learn the results and more importantly to know our residents were not in danger.”

On Sept. 12, the Board of Supervisors formally declared a local emergency due to concerns stemming from monsoonal flooding that breeched protective berms at the site and inundated portions of the San Jose, Vargas and Gamez mobile home parks.

County Emergency Management Department Director Bruce Barton said the heavy downpours were “particularly cruel” to areas battered a week prior by Tropical Storm Hilary.

“We had infrastructure already damaged, and there was damage to crops,” Barton told the board. “There was significant rainfall on the Lawson Landfill.”

Nearly three inches of rain fell during the monsoonal activity across the eastern Coachella Valley on Sept. 1, causing widespread flooding in parts of Mecca, Oasis and Thermal, including within the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation.

The mobile home parks were under an evacuation warning since Sept. 2 and a shelter with meals and services was opened at the Galilee Center in Mecca, though no residents used it, officials said.

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