During the week of August 27th, we held community meetings throughout Imperial Valley for the Lateral Canal Study. Below are the presentations from the community meetings in Brawley, El Centro, and Holtville.
We’d like to thank everyone who attended the workshops. Thank you for your comments and feedback. Stay tuned for more updates!
If you have any questions, email us at info@ccvhealth.org.
Join us the week of August 27th as we discuss community needs and pollution hotspots. See below for a schedule of the meetings. Light refreshments will be served. We hope to see you there!
Brawley: Monday, August 27th | 6:00pm-8:00pm | Comite Civico Del Valle Inc, 235 Main St, Brawley,CA
El Centro: Tuesday, August 28th | 6:00pm-8:00pm | Imperial County CalWORKS, 2895 S 4th St, El Centro, CA
Holtville: Thursday, August 30th | 6:00pm-8:00pm | 121 W 5th St, Holtville, CA
If you have any questions, email us at info@ccvhealth.org.
On July 18th, we held a “Train the Trainer” workshop at the CCV office. During this workshop, our partner at the CA Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) gave an overview of the agenda and activities that we will be doing during the community meetings. We went over the needs assessment survey and mapping activity in order to see what would be the most effective way to gather information for the project during the community meetings.
Additionally, we narrowed down the list of potential water sampling locations to five. The five locations will be East of El Centro, West of El Centro, Holtville, Niland/Calipatria, and West of Brawley/East of Brawley. Although we have narrowed down the water sampling locations to five, we will still be working with the CSC and community members to further refine water sampling locations within those selected five locations.
We’re excited to continue collaborating alongside you in order to begin water sampling! Stay tuned for dates and locations for the community workshops.
If you have any questions, email us at info@ccvhealth.org. Hasta pronto!
On April 30th, we held our second community steering committee (CSC) meeting. Our partners at the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) gave a presentation on the study and discussed analysis that was conducted to identify potential water sampling locations. We used a high impact area analysis to identify potential sampling location. There were 12 areas in Imperial County recommended for water sampling. We will have further discussions in order to narrow down the 12 locations to five.
During the presentation, we asked the CSC for feedback on what times of year we should collect water samples (i.e. spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter). CSC members suggested gathering sampling at different times of the year in the same location in order to see any variations in contaminants. Additionally, the CSC also recommended testing water during different times of the day (i.e. Morning, afternoon, and evening).
The project team also asked the CSC for input on where we should collect water samples. We proposed to collect water samples near the pipe that provides water to the settling tank. The CSC members agreed with that recommendation, and informed us that it would be helpful to test water from the faucet. They recommended that the project team expand on the water analysis and account for wind, temperature, proximity to industry/farms, and sampling on burn days.
We’d like to thank the CSC members that attended for their time and contributions. We will be working hard to narrow down the potential water sampling locations from 12 to five. We’re excited to begin community workshops soon and begin water sampling.
On November 30th, we held our first community steering committee (CSC) meeting. We had a great community turnout and folks were very passionate about their environmental health! Our research partners from the University of Washington gave a presentation on the study and discussed the results of previous water quality testing. Here is a link to one of the studies that we discussed: Agua y Salud. Water Quality & Environmental Health Community Study. This study tested the water quality of 35 homes in Imperial County that use canal water. They discovered that water in 70% of the houses tested positive for bacteria. Several houses also tested positive for nitrates, pesticides and lead.
We also discussed the water quality testing that the Imperial Irrigation District conducts every year. The annual water quality reports are available here. Their results indicate that there are trace amounts of pesticides and industrial chemicals in the water, but all of them are below the state's maximum contaminant levels. Although this seems like good news, it doesn't tell us much about the water that people actually use. The tests were not done on water that people use in their homes. The tests were conducted on water that is closer to the source and is less likely to be affected by agricultural and industrial pollution.
Our CSC members shared information about possible sources of pollution, such as flooding near the Chocolate Mountains. They also shared information about how most folks who use canal water don't treat it before use. Even the people who have filtration systems may have issues maintaining them - the canal water has so much dirt and sediment in it that the filters don't last nearly as long as they should.
We want to thank everyone who attended for their time and contributions. We are excited to see you all again in February/March! Until then, we'll be hard at work planning our upcoming community meetings, where we'll be doing a community needs survey and pollution mapping activity.
We are preparing for our first community steering committee meeting (CSC), which will be held on November 30, 2017 in Brawley! During this meeting, we will be introducing the project goals and timeline, discussing the needs of the community in relation to water quality, taking a survey to identify community needs, and outlining next steps. We are excited to collaborate with you to understand community needs and take action on water quality issues.
If you would like to be a CSC member, email us at info@ccvhealth.org.
Join us to discuss community needs and pollution hotspots. The meetings are scheduled for the week of August 27th. Check out our Project Updates for a schedule of meeting dates, times, and locations.
Join us to discuss community needs and pollution hotspots. The meetings are scheduled for Feb/March 2018.
Our first CSC meeting was a success! Check out our Project Updates for a summary.