State To Test For Contaminants In Wildomar Neighborhood

Following a year of concerns by some Wildomar residents that their homes have been making them sick, state officials will conduct testing in the neighborhood.

The California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Toxic Substances Control has scheduled an environmental contractor to collect soil, soil gas and groundwater samples from specific locations within the Autumnwood housing tract.

According to a DTSC document distributed to Autumnwood residents, AMEC Environment and Infrastructure will take samples from “limited portions” of the following streets: Front Street, Pasadena Street, Protea Court, Palomar Street, Amaryllis Court, and Pink Ginger Court.

The sampling will take place Nov. 7-8, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and again Nov. 13-15, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Streets will remain open during the sampling periods.

“DTSC will oversee the work conducted by AMEC and will update the local community of the sampling results by December 2013,” according to the DTSC notice.

Test results from air and soil samples taken from the Autumnwood neighborhood earlier this year by South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) did not reveal significant contaminants, a DTSC official said when the results came in.

“Nothing in these sample results shows the need for additional sampling. Rather, the sample results are consistent with background levels found in the western United States,” said Jim Marxen, spokesman for the California Environmental Protection Agency’s DTSC.

However, some Autumnwood residents said independent and SCAQMD test results did reveal high levels of some chemicals and they wanted further testing from the DTSC. The agency balked, but in July residents traveled to Sacramento to make their case.

“The meeting went very, very well,” said Penny Newman of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, a non-profit organization that advocates for citizens impacted by environmental hazards.

Newman made her comments following the trip up north and said residents’ concerns were not being dismissed.

The meeting was hosted by DTSC director Debbie Raphael, who had visited the Autumnwood site.

At press time, air, water and soil tests have been conducted by investigators representing various governmental agencies, and Newman maintains the results show something very wrong in Autumnwood.

Test results show higher levels of various chemicals -- including chloromethane in some of the homes’ subslabs and higher levels of Total Dissolvable Solids in water, Newman said.

“There’s a combination of situations and conditions. It’s not just air, water or soil. There’s something unique to this tract,” she said.

Seven current or former Wildomar residents were at the July 2013 meeting, including Xonia Villanueva. She and others have since traveled back to Sacramento for subsequent meetings with agency officials.

Villanueva moved out of the Autumnwood tract because her family became sick. She's continued to seek answers because she doesn’t want others to become ill. She alleges that her family is still suffering and others in the neighborhood are getting ill.

“We’ve been through a lot. We’ve been been sick and we’re getting sicker,” she said, maintaining that there have been deaths and autoimmune diseases diagnosed in Autumnwood.

While Villanueva said she is "thrilled" DTSC is now testing, it’s not enough. She wants to see sampling at all 61 home sites in the Autumnwood tract. Currently, the agency will test far fewer.

Villanueva also wants to see long-term testing so that samples can be analyzed during the various seasons and weather conditions.

“We know the [chemical] concentrations change,” she said.

Some Autumnwood residents believe the alleged contamination came from fill dirt dumped in the tract prior to construction; there are even allegations that recycled water may have been piped into the homes.

According to Villanueva, DTSC criminal investigators were assigned to determine what may have happened at the Autumnwood site prior to and during construction, but she says the team was pulled off.

“We’re just not getting answers,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. “It’s hard for me to even talk about it.”