HAVASU LAKE ONGOING WATER WOES

The small community has been under repeated boil water advisories for over two years

One of several unincorporated communities in San Bernardino County, Havasu Lake sits on the border of California and Arizona and gets its water from Havasu Lake, a large reservoir formed by Parker Dam. The Havasu Water Co which manages the treatment and distribution of drinking water has repeatedly issued water boil notices to its 361 customers due to high levels of trihalomethanes — byproducts formed during the water treatment process — that exceed minimum federal safety drinking water standards.

An attorney representing the Havasu Water Co. said costly and ongoing litigation with the neighboring Chemehuevi Indian Tribe has thwarted the company’s efforts to make necessary fixes to its public water system.

Meanwhile

The state Public Utilities Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assumed regulatory oversight of the Havasu Water Co. on Jan. 1 because its 1,500-foot pipeline runs across the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe’s reservation.

The tribe maintains that a 30-year agreement allowing the pipeline expired in 2006, and the water company has refused to negotiate a new annual rental agreement at fair rental value, The water company disputes the tribe’s assertion that its 1976 agreement with the tribe terminated in 2006, and the lawsuit is ongoing.

At a meeting on September 5, the state Public Utilities Commission (PWC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Christopher Chen - drinking water enforcement officer for the EPA - said the agency issued an order in May giving the water company until Dec. 31 to submit a plan for correcting significant deficiencies. 

Meanwhile, residents of Havasu Lake could be looking at more water boil notices and more bottled water in the foreseeable future,

Read the full story by Joe Nelson in the San Bernardino Sun
Reposted with permission