Safe Water Plan Worked Out For East Valley

COACHELLA – The Coachella Valley Water District is looking into supplying water to thousands of people living in rural parts of the east valley where unsafe drinking water is a big problem.

Most of the people affected live in mobile home parks like Saint Anthony’s in Mecca.

The problem,the ground water that’s drawn from private wells is undrinkable because it contains potentially unhealthful levels of arsenic.

To deal with this dilemma,the Coachella Valley Water District would like to extend the public water supply to these out-lying areas.Thewater district has applied for two million dollars in federal funding to study the best way to tackle such an undertaking.

Dan Parks, the Assistant General Manager of thewater district saysthere are basically two options.

“It would entail installing a number of miles of pipeline and providing a water treatment plant for well water or for canal water. Either one of those is likely to be a 2 year project from start to completion.”

The water district’s extended service could reach as many as 15 thousand east valley residents.