Supervisor Jeffries Pushing For Safe Water In Wildomar

UPDATE Nov. 5: On Tuesday the Riverside County Board of Supervisors agreed to formally support Senate Bill 722 (Emmerson, R-Redlands) with a 4-0 vote; Supervisor Benoit was absent. For more on why this vote was important to Wildomar, read the story below.

ORIGINAL POST: Residents living in the northeast pocket of Wildomar should have safe water to drink -- something they haven’t had much of lately.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries and other lawmakers say they are working to change that.

On Tuesday, Jeffries will ask his colleagues to allow Riverside County to formally support Senate Bill 722 (Emmerson, R-Redlands). If signed into law, the bill would provide immunity to Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District and Eastern Municipal Water District against any claims associated with the "substandard" water system originally constructed by the County Water Company of Riverside.

County Water Company of Riverside provides drinking water to roughly 140 homes in the northeast corner of Wildomar and the abutting area of Menifee. But the small company's water has been found to have unsafe nitrate levels and is unreliable, often leaving residents without any water supply. Click here for more on that story.

Eastern and EVMWD have been working in concert for more than a year to find a solution that will include the dissolution of the County Water Company of Riverside and the installation of new infrastructure in the service area.

SB 722 would allow EMWD and EVMWD to move forward without the threat of lawsuits. Under the bill, the districts would provide a temporary potable service pipeline on or before January 2014. The bill’s language implies that permanent replacement facilities would be installed but does not mandate a date for such work.

In September, both EMWD and EVMWD said in a joint released statement that a new system will be paid for through grants from the California Department of Public Health. No costs will be borne by any current Eastern or EVMWD ratepayers, according to the statement.

Jeffries maintains the current situation for County Water Company of Riverside customers is simply intolerable.

"It is unacceptable that in Riverside County today, we have residents who do not have access to clean drinking water, and the county had been working closely with local water districts to close down the current water provider and replace their tainted wells with clean, reliable water,” he said.

Jeffries argues that without SB 722, EVMWD, EMWD and ratepayers could become liable during the transition from the “unhealthy conditions of the existing [County Water Company of Riverside] system.”  

“This bill will protect the district and local ratepayers while they work on helping this community obtain safe drinking water," he said.

Earlier this year, Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez publicly threw her support behind Jeffries' efforts to find a solution to the local water problem.

“County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries has been instrumental in bringing the Elsinore Valley Water District and the Eastern Municipal Water District together to begin service for this rural area between Wildomar and Menifee,” she said.