Assembly Hearing Held On Mecca Health Hazards

The foul stench in Mecca prompted a State Assembly committee to hold a hearing at Desert Mirage High School in Thermal on Friday to examine solutions to the problem, and ways to eliminate health and environmental threats in that area.

The meeting started at 3 p.m.

It was scheduled to end at 6 p.m., but continued well past an hour after that because of growing interest from the community.

From the audience, there was passion, anger and sometimes a lack of confidence in their state and local leaders to eliminate the health hazard in their community.

“We hope that it will be beneficial, because it has never been done before in this area,” said Eduardo Guevara, a Mecca resident.

From the panel, there were still questions and doubt surrounding the effort to remove the foul odor sickening residents, which has been identified as coming from the soil recycling facility Western Environmental.

“Is there coordination occurring between the various agencies working on this issue,” asked Assemblyman Manuel Perez (D-Coachella).

The California State Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials committee hosted the hearing.

The California Environmental Protection Agency joined the panel, and said it recently reached out to the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, which owns the land on which Western Environmental resides.

“(The) federal EPA is just addressing odors,” said Ricardo Martinez, California EPA. “I don’t want to speak on their behalf, but the unilateral order was just to control odor.”

The U.S. EPA has prohibited Western Environmental from taking in any more hazardous materials.

But the state EPA wants to go further by developing an action plan to prevent any more health hazards like this from popping up in the future.

They expect a draft of the plan within a month.

The state EPA met with the tribe on Thursday for the first time regarding the smell.

“Tribes, in the past, when we’ve asked to have access, we’ve been told, ‘we’re a sovereign nation — you can’t come on our property,'” said Martinez. “Maybe it’s our fault to make that assumption on this occasion.”

But tribal chairman David Roosevelt said he’s never denied any agency access to the land on this issue.

The state EPA wants to do it’s own tests on the soil in question, and Roosevelt said that’s OK.

“Another thing was to allow their people to come on site on a regular basis after all of this is settled, which I don’t see as a problem,” said Roosevelt.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District was also at the meeting.

Last month, it issued a notice of violation to Western Environmental.

It is currently working on an agreement with the facility to resolve the odor, and possibly impose a financial penalty.

That resolution is expected within 30 days.