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Pescadero migrants drank well water with dangerously high levels of
nitrates
By Julia Scott -
PESCADERO, CA -- Families living at two labor camps in rural Pescadero
have been drinking unhealthy levels of nitrate-contaminated water for
years, possibly even a decade, a San Mateo County Times investigation
has found.
About 50 people -- 28 farmworkers and their families -- were evicted
from their barracks and trailers south of Pescadero on May 14 after
county health officials discovered they were drinking and cooking with
nitrate-tainted water more than six times the public health limit.
Another camp with at least 25 residents was closed on May 18 for
identical reasons.
The families are tenants of "Red" Marchi, their employer and owner of
Marchi's Central Farm. The farm grows 300 acres of brussels sprouts,
leeks and other vegetables in and around Pescadero.
The untreated water in some kitchens and bathrooms tested as high as 290
milligrams per liter for nitrates, according to Dean Peterson, director
of
Both Peterson and Marchi say no one is living at either labor camp
anymore. But Kerry Lobel, executive director of Pescadero-based
community nonprofit group Puente de la Costa Sur, says most families are
still there because they have no place else to go.
"It would be a tremendous disaster for people to be forced to move from
there with no other alternative," Lobel said. "The reality is when
there's no housing available and you have children in school, it's not
easy for people to move."
Residents have been told not to drink, bathe in or cook with the
nitrate-tainted water, which comes from the ground beneath the property.
Some have been showering at the local high school, and drinking bottled
water supplied by Marchi, according to Lobel.
Nitrates are linked to blue baby syndrome, which cuts off oxygen to
essential organs in infants. It can also affect pregnant women and
immuno-compromised adults.
Lobel estimated that between five and eight infants are living in both
labor camps, and possibly some pregnant women as well.
The county might never have discovered the problem if not for a tip they
got around the time of their annual building inspection of Marchi's
camps on April 29. Nitrate levels in the tap water were found to be six
times higher than the well water itself, although the well water was
also heavily contaminated with nitrates.
Marchi is required to send the water to a lab once a year to test for
nitrates, but he failed to do the testing in 2009, according to records.
The county has never tested the wells. It relies on landowners of the
county's 19 labor camps to provide potable water, but does not check to
make sure they are doing so.
If testing never occurs, residents are not notified that their water is
polluted. "We had never gotten complaints. We had never gotten any
information that the water wasn't potable," said Peterson.
But county records tell a different story.
A report prepared by a staff member in Peterson's office in March 2010
notes that the well at the labor camp that was red-tagged on May 14 has
a history of nitrate contamination, particularly during the dry season.
The report recommends the water be treated to avoid contamination, but
does not require the treatment, suggesting only that Marchi "should make
controlling nitrate a high priority."
Some labor camps are so small that they legally fly under the county's
radar. That was the case for the smaller Marchi camp on
Marchi isn't required to test the well there or report the results to
county health officials.
"We haven't been looking at water quality at a lot of these places. It's
really opened our eyes to the fact that we need to be out there, looking
at all aspects of it and not just taking the word of the farmers," said
Peterson.
Going forward, Peterson says his staff will either test or personally
supervise annual well testing at all labor camps.
Marchi said he was "very surprised" about the nitrates. He said none of
his tenants ever drank the water anyway, using bottled water they bought
for themselves or that he offered them.
"I gave them water when they asked for it. I drank the tap water from my
unit and I never had no problems," said Marchi.
He said they did cook with the water. Boiling nitrate-contaminated water
concentrates the nitrates, making it even more dangerous to consume.
Marchi said no one is living in the evicted camps, but quickly added
that he had purchased potable water from the
Families at Marchi's larger labor camp, just off Highway 1, could have
been drinking dangerous levels of nitrates for as long as a decade.
The county's eviction order barred Marchi from using a spring on his
property as a drinking water source for residents, since nitrate levels
there were off the charts. The spring was not a registered water source
and has never been tested before. Marchi said he used it "now and then"
in the summer months when water levels were low for the past 10 years.
The county won't re-issue a housing permit for the two labor camps until
Marchi comes up with a certified short- and long-term plan to provide
clean water. Marchi has spoken with a local company about installing two
commercial water treatment systems.
Nitrates have tainted Pescadero's drinking water for years. The county
installed a well to serve central Pescadero in the early 1980s after the
groundwater wells at the local elementary school and under several homes
developed serious nitrate problems.
A byproduct of nitrogen fertilizer and leaky septic tanks, nitrates seep
into groundwater and stay there for decades, even forever.
The wells supplying water to Marchi's labor camps are 30 feet away from
the fields the men work in.
Marchi's Central Farm also has a long history of housing safety
violations, county records show. Peterson's department referred that
case to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office this week.
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