Operators of Coachella Valley’s Oasis Mobile Home Park agree to upgrade drinking and wastewater systems

Operators of Coachella Valley's Oasis Mobile Home Park agree to upgrade drinking and wastewater systems

January 23, 2025

LOS ANGELES (January 23, 2025) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a consent decree with the operators of the Oasis Mobile Home Park to resolve violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The consent decree requires the Park's operators to upgrade the Park's drinking water and wastewater systems and pay a $50,000 penalty.

"EPA is wholeheartedly committed to ensuring that everyone has safe water to drink," said EPA Pacific Southwest Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division Acting Director Joel Jones. "We will continue to fully utilize the authorities of the Safe Drinking Water Act to hold water operators accountable for meeting drinking water standards."

The consent decree requires extensive upgrades and operational improvements to the drinking water system at Oasis over the next two years. In addition to the $50,000 civil penalty, key requirements include:

• Installation of alarms on the drinking water treatment system to monitor its operation;
• Addition of at least 80,000 gallons of water storage capacity;
• Installation of a booster pump and purchase of critical replacement parts;
• Ensuring that qualified public water system operators are at the Park seven days per week until the Park's operators install the alarm system;
• Development of comprehensive standard operating procedures for the public water system;
• Mandatory quarterly meetings with EPA to review compliance progress with the consent decree; and
• Notification to EPA as soon as possible and no later than twenty-four hours if consent decree violations or other issues pose an immediate threat to public health or the environment.

The consent decree also requires the operators to work with an EPA contractor to develop a wastewater system assessment, expected to be completed by March 2026. The operators must fix problems identified during the wastewater system assessment after the Oasis drinking water system improvements are completed.

Oasis mobile home park, located in Thermal in California's Eastern Coachella Valley, sits within the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians Tribal Reservation boundaries. With an estimated population of 1,000 people, it is the valley's largest mobile home facility and primarily serves agricultural workers. While situated on Tribal land, the public water and wastewater systems at Oasis operate independently from Tribal control or ownership. The Park's drinking water system uses groundwater that has high levels of naturally occurring arsenic. Arsenic is a known carcinogen, and drinking high levels over many years can increase the chance of lung, bladder, and skin cancers, heart disease, diabetes, and neurological damage.

Since 2019, EPA has issued several Emergency Administrative Orders to the Park's operators. The orders address the serious threat park residents face from high levels of arsenic in drinking water (exceeding the maximum contaminant level of 10 parts per billion) and failures to adequately operate and maintain the arsenic treatment system. These orders have resulted in substantial improvements, but compliance issues remain, and EPA has been concerned about the Park's ability to treat arsenic on a long-term basis.

The consent decree, lodged by the Justice Department in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, is subject to a 30-day public comment period, January 23, 2025 through February 24, 2025, and final court approval. Information on submitting comments and access to the settlement agreement is available on the Justice Department's Proposed Consent Decree webpage.

More information is available at EPA's Oasis Mobile Home Park Safe Drinking Water Act Consent Decree.

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