Mobile home’s broken pump may have polluted nearby water

BARSTOW — The region’s water board ordered more tests in connection with a mobile home park that may have polluted nearby water.

The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board recently found nitrate levels above the 10 milligrams per liter safe level near Hacienda Mobile Home Park, 35852 Soap Mine Road.

Lahontan ordered further tests after a February test showed nitrate concentrations of 25 milligrams per liter near the trailer park, according to a letter Lahontan sent the park.

“The park may have discharged domestic waste and caused a condition of pollution,” according to the letter.

Sharon Thurston, the owner of Hacienda Mobile Home Park, said the proximity of her park’s septic tanks to the water board’s test well may have led to the elevated nitrate readings. She attributed the high nitrate readings to a broken septic pump that recently backed up and released sewage onto the ground nearby.

“We didn’t know the pump was broken and are trying to get it repaired as fast as we can.

Other than that, we’ve never had any problems with it,” she said.

She said that a replacement pump was ordered on Tuesday and will be installed as soon as possible. Thurston said the contamination was a recent problem.

“Whatever’s going on at my park does not have anything to do with what’s going on at the other end of Soap Mine Road,” she said, referring to a previous case of nitrate contamination for which the city of Barstow was found partly responsible.

According to the state water board, there is “ample evidence” that the city is the primary contributor to the nitrate plume in the Soap Mine area.

“The city is likely the primary contributor, but that’s why we are ordering the park to perform these tests, to find out what other sources may be responsible,” said Robert Dodds, Lahontan’s assistant executive director.

In May, groundwater tests of 11 private wells in the Soap Mine area found nitrate levels in excess of the 10 mg/L safe levels. Earlier this year, the water board found the city partially responsible for the contamination and ordered them to provide bottled water to 23 well owners in the Soap Mine Road area. Before 2004, the city sprayed 1.2 million gallons of treated sewage a day from the wastewater-treatment plant on a field located near Soap Mine Road and the Interstate 15. The waste contained nitrates as well as compounds known to create nitrates, according to water board documents.

Barstow city manager Hector Rodriguez said that he views other water-pollution issues in the Soap Mine Road area and the mobile home park’s potential pollution as separate issues.

“I would hope that the involved consultants can determine who the responsible parties are so that the situations can be resolved,” he said.