U.S. sues over squalor at desert trailer park on Indian reservation

Calling conditions at a Thermal trailer park indecent, offensive and representing an immediate threat to the life of its residents, the U.S. government Tuesday filed a lawsuit against park owner Harvey Duro demanding that he make immediate improvements or be closed down.

The suit said the estimated 4,000 residents of Desert Mobile Home Park -- also known as Duroville -- on the Torres-Martinez Reservation face threats including vermin-borne disease, electrocution and cholera from unsafe drinking water.

“There are severe health and safety concerns at the mobile home park, and while Harvey Duro has promised to alleviate those issues, he hasn’t, and he will have to make them immediately or we will shut him down,” said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, where the suit was filed in U.S. District Court.

The suit describes a place of Third World squalor with tenants beset by hazards on every side.

Poor construction, improper sewage disposal, fire threats from tightly packed trailers and jerry-built electrical systems create the potential for what is described as a “catastrophic event.”

A park spokesman dismissed the allegations as gross exaggerations and said they were stoked by racism on the government’s part.

“Drinking water at the Trailer Park is not safe . . . presenting the risk to residents of cholera and other diseases,” the lawsuit said.

“Human waste in the Trailer Park is drained from trailers and businesses and dumped in a series of open lagoons . . . some of which are located within 30 feet of mobile homes.”

Park manager Jack Gradias disputed the allegations, saying that although some improvements, such as upgraded pipes, needed to be made, most problems were caused by the mostly Latino farmworker tenants.

“Just about everything they are talking about is related to the tenants’ trailers and not the park,” he said.

david.kelly@latimes.com