Troubled Waters

Something sinister lurks beneath Gil Regalado’s backyard.

The retired heavy equipment operator can’t see it. But he has been told that less than 100 feet below the surface of this largely poor, mostly Latino community, a toxic soup is seeping into the ground water from decades-old septic tanks that were declared health hazards last year and ordered phased out by 2008.

Regalado isn’t sure how it will all play out. All he knows is that it will cost at least $10 million to fix, a price no one here can afford.

“Our people here are working people--we are not of high resources or big investments or anything like that,” said Regalado, who has lived all of his 71 years in this community, where many residents now fear they will be buried in debt or taxed out of their homes to finance a new sewer project.

“This puts us in a hell of a predicament,” he added. “There’s no way we can do this alone.”

Alone. Neglected. Put upon.

Those sentiments bubble up often in this blue collar community, an unincorporated enclave of fewer than 10 square blocks wedged between the Ventura Freeway and commercial development spilling over from Oxnard.

It is a community that clings to its independence, a place without sidewalks or street lights, where generations of immigrant families have pursued their dreams from tiny homes of clapboard and stucco.

But it’s also a place increasingly squeezed by outside pressures, a community losing one battle after another to keep new development at arm’s length while fighting desperately to shore up signs of decay.

El Rio boasts a population of about 6,500--with Latinos accounting for 64% and whites making up 31%, according to the 1990 U.S. census. The household income is $35,991--nearly $10,000 below the county median--and 12% of El Rio’s population lives below the poverty level.

It is also among the county’s most crowded communities, a fact that residents pointed to recently when they unsuccessfully opposed a low-income housing project and a new juvenile detention center north of town.

Now comes a new battle, as state officials move to protect the primary source of water for more than 150,000 people on the Oxnard Plain.

Citing evidence of ongoing contamination, the state Regional Water Quality Control Board in August ordered homeowners in El Rio and surrounding areas to stop using septic tanks and connect to a municipal sewer system. The order came over the protests of local residents.

Extending sewer lines from Oxnard to El Rio will cost at least $10 million. Beyond that, about 1,000 homeowners in the area would each have to pay between $3,000 and $5,000 to tap into the system.

*

The state edict provides no money for the work.

That is bad news for a community like El Rio, filled with senior citizens on fixed incomes and farm laborers living paycheck to paycheck.

The potential for hardship raises larger questions about who should pay for environmental problems plaguing the poor, a debate echoed last week during front-page protests against world banking powers accused of neglecting impoverished communities.

Supervisor John Flynn and Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) think that in this case, at least, the taxpayers should help bail out the poor.

Flynn, whose 5th District includes El Rio, is seeking up to $12 million in state and federal grants to extend Oxnard’s sewer system to the community.

And Strickland has introduced groundbreaking legislation that would earmark up to $5,000 each for homeowners to connect to the system once it’s in place.

If Strickland is successful, it could make the community a model for others around the state grappling with similar problems.

“Unless we offer some help, some of these folks might not be able to afford to keep their homes,” said Strickland, whose district stretches from Thousand Oaks to El Rio. “I think that’s wrong and I’m going to do whatever it takes to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

This problem is not limited to El Rio. Across the state, communities are scrambling to find ways to pay for similar public works projects as state water officials outlaw septic tank usage.

But in this community, where homes are passed down from one generation to the next, residents are wary of too much government intrusion. Many appreciate the offers of help. But they also worry that it could open the door to annexation or some more sinister plot to condemn their homes and move them out. Neighbor after neighbor talks about the poor people who were thrown out of Chavez Ravine four decades ago to make way for Dodger Stadium.

In a place where people want to be left alone, that is the scariest possibility of all.

“We like our little country area like it is,” said Patricia Fontes, a 46-year resident. “I think most people realize that progress will happen and that we’re going to have to go on sewer. I just hope it can be done so that whoever is doing it just comes in and puts in the pipe, then goes away.”

Agriculture Once Flourished in Area

El Rio has long been defined by water.

Carved out of fields once flush with lima beans and sugar beets east of the Santa Clara River, its very name means “the river.” A hard rain still floods many of the local streets, making them virtually impassable.

The town also lies on a vital recharge area known as the Oxnard Forebay, a 10-square-mile area of sandy soil where water can easily penetrate and filter down to aquifers under the Oxnard Plain.

Those aquifers supply drinking water to residents in parts of Ventura, Oxnard and Port Hueneme, as well as unincorporated communities such as El Rio and Saticoy. The water also is used for a range of other domestic and agricultural purposes.

Septic tanks have been a problem in that sensitive area for more than two decades. But it wasn’t until 1994 that the regional water board adopted a plan discouraging continued use of septic systems because of water quality concerns.

That was followed in 1997 by a report from the Ventura County Grand Jury citing pollution problems in the Oxnard Forebay and calling for septic tanks in the area to be replaced with a modern sewage disposal system as early as possible. But the movement petered out the next year, when the State Water Resources Control Board rejected the county’s application for a $3.5-million grant to partially fund a sewer system to replace some of El Rio’s septic tanks.

The regional water board kept at it, ordering studies in 1998 on the water quality impacts of septic tanks. The studies concluded that septic system effluent was seeping into the ground water, contaminating the water supply with bacteria that can lead to nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and other illnesses. The water also contained excessive levels of nitrates, a chemical linked to blue baby syndrome, which robs infants of the ability to absorb oxygen.

Water board geologist Rick Vergets said there have been no reports of illness linked to the contamination. But he said no one wanted to wait until that happened to shut down the septic systems.

“We know ultimately it boils down to money, and we’re helping the county of Ventura as much as we can,” Vergets said.

The order by the regional water board to abandon the septic tanks will go to the statewide board in June for final approval.

At that time, residents will again be able to make their case for continuing to use their septic systems. But it’s unlikely that the order will be overturned, given the state’s determination to improve water quality standards.

Vergets said he knows that can be a tough sell to local residents, who don’t see sewage flowing in the streets or their tap water suddenly turning dirty and brown.

But he said studies have shown that as much as 1.5 million gallons per day of effluent are discharged into septic systems in El Rio and surrounding communities, much of which finds its way into the ground water sooner or later.

“I can’t tell you exactly how much, but a lot of it does,” he said. “It might not get there immediately. It might take a few days, or even a few months. But we believe it’s getting there.”

Sewer Tax Proposals Failed

People in El Rio say they knew this day would come.

Going back more than 30 years, homeowners circulated petitions seeking to tax themselves to bring sewer lines to the community.

Those efforts failed because people were barely scraping by and scared of the cost. On that score, little has changed today.

But for all its poverty and other problems, this community remains a haven for the working class. The census reveals extraordinary stability in El Rio, with 61% of the population living in the same residence for at least five years--far higher than the county’s rate of 45%.

That kind of permanence has produced some hard-fought benefits.

Fulfilling a dream 30 years in the making, and using grant money, local leaders last year broke ground on a new gymnasium, which will contain a community center and a Sheriff’s Department storefront.

The community also boasts its own school district, which operates four elementary schools and a junior high.

Lifetime El Rio resident Ernest Almanza has served on the school board for 35 years. Like others here, he worries about the costs of the sewer project and how those on fixed incomes will be able to afford it. But he said times are changing, and El Rio has to change too if it wants to retain its independence.

“I always said it would probably happen in my lifetime, and sure enough it looks like it has arrived,” said Almanza, 64. “Now that there’s a possibility of getting some financial help, it’s a great time to take advantage of it. We help ourselves and help everybody else.”

In other areas of the state grappling with similar issues, officials are looking to El Rio for guidance in how to solve their problems.

In Butte County, where state water officials ordered 12,000 units to phase out septic tanks by 1995, communities are still struggling to come up with the money to do the work. County planners have recently come up with a plan to hook up 7,800 units to the sewer, at a cost of $70 million.

Officials there were counting on Strickland’s septic tank bill to defray the costs. But concerned about costs, the Assembly’s committee on environmental safety and toxic materials earlier this month narrowed the legislation to only benefit El Rio.

“Of course we’re disappointed,” said Eric Miler, Butte County’s manager of program resources. “To my knowledge, no one has presented something like this. We’re hoping this will become a model that can still help us down the road.”

*

Flynn is hoping for the same thing. But he is also busy going after even more money.

The supervisor is quick to point out that since El Rio was added to his district in 1991, he has helped bring millions of dollars to the community in flood control improvements and other projects.

He said his goal is to complete the public works project without any costs to area residents.

“I think the community is to the point where it realizes it has to have the sewer system,” said Flynn, adding that county planners are currently trying to pin down the costs of the project. “Now they need some help and they’re looking to us to give it to them.”

It’s true that the sentiment throughout much of El Rio runs toward bringing in as much help as possible. But there are also plenty of people willing to do their part, hearty men such as 69-year-old Genaro Gomez who says he is willing to dig his own trench and make the connection himself if someone else brings the sewer here.

“I’ll dig the hole; I spent three years in the service making holes,” said Gomez, a longtime resident who wears a hat emblazoned with “El Rio” and stitched with a Korean War veterans’ patch.

“I would like to have the sewer here, but I can’t afford it and I think a lot of people are in the same boat,” he said. “But if the governor wants to pay for it, I don’t mind one bit.”

Even if the sewer comes to El Rio one day, even if there is money to connect the houses to the main line, there will still be hurdles to overcome.

An assessment district may be needed to pick up some of the costs, forcing residents to tax themselves to pay for a portion of the project. Then there is the $20.64 a month the city of Oxnard charges for sewer service.

Knowing that conditions are hard for many in this cash-strapped community at a time when the state is flush with cash, homeowners say it’s all the more reason to demand their fair share.

“The priority should be for areas like ours,” said Regalado, standing in the frontyard of his patch of El Rio.

“All of us in one way or another have worked very hard for what we have,” he said. “We pay our taxes and we’re not asking anything back that we haven’t put in. We’ve just got to keep the pressure on to bring money to this area.”