A Quest For Clean Water

A Quest For Clean Water

By Lynda Carson 04/20/03

Local Contra Costa County activists Mary Cosetti and Steve Sharp have made their mark by blazing trails into the offices of county and state representatives of their district, in their quest to bring clean water to their neighbors, friends and loved ones at the Harris Marina Rv Park of Bethel Island.

To many, Contra Costa County is a very scary place to live in. It's known as a toxic hot spot in California with it's many refineries and chemical plants, making it "#1" in the state with regards to the most pounds of airborne pollution being dispersed annually per person. An August 6, 2002 Contra Costa Times story covered an investigation detailing how bay area pollution trading programs have resulted in an ever greater shift of toxic industrial air pollution to occur in Contra Costa County, by having roughly added an additional 700 tons of toxic pollution being dispersed in Contra Costa County on an annual basis.

In Contra Costa County, barely a ten minute drive from Pittsburg, California, in the heart of the San Joaquin Delta, rests the tiny unincorporated resort community known as Bethel Island. A quiet picturesque community with a population averaging around 2,300 year around residents residing on what originally was 3,400 acres of swamp and overflowed land from the delta. A single two lane bridge reaches Bethel Island from the mainland, and until recently has been without mass-transit or taxi's.

Most in the community of Bethel Island make a living in the construction and maintenance occupations with an estimated 15.2% of housholds earning less than $15,000 annually, and it's the sort of place where on average the full time male workers earn nearly as much as $10,000 more per year than their female counterparts working full time, according to the
2000 Census Report.

Many low-income people in Contra Costa County reside in trailer parks, and Bethel Island being no exception has the Harris Marina RV Park where 2 local activists have been butting heads with the owners of the trailer park and the governing system in their quest to find and maintain a good source of clean water.

Steve Sharp who considers himself as a self described 50 year old Navy Brat who grew up partially in Spring Valley, California, moved to Harris Marina around 2 years ago on Febuary 14, 2001. Sharps disabled, owns his own trailer, and hangs with his buddy-girlfriend Mary Cosetti, who has worked dilligently with Sharp in their efforts to get clean water to the residents of the park after numerous people started getting sick from what they believed to be polluted water being pumped into their homes.

According to Sharp and Cosetti, they first started noticing that the water pressure got bad after about 6 to 8 months when more people started moving into the trailer park. Harris Marina has been there around 20 years, with around 13 trailers and 33 berths, and the water system has become worse in time as more people started moving into the park, said Sharp. Contra Costa County Health Services Records show that approximately 25 people and more resided at the trailer park as of September, 2002.

At some point in time after Sharp moved in, 5 trailer sites out of a total 13 sites complained about the bad water, it's smell, taste, small floaters visible to the eye in the water and the lack of water pressure feeding into all of the different trailer park sites. It reached the point
where people no longer could even flush the toilet at times due to the lack of water pressure,
Cosetti and Sharp said.

In a disturbing display of video footage used to explain the situation, Sharp produced some stunning taped video footage clearly showing how he could turn on his tap water in the kitchen of his trailer, and immediately turn around to step outside his entranceway door to his yard to turn on the water spigot next to his trailer, and come right back into his home again only to find that water no longer was flowing into his kitchen sink after he turned on the spigot outside his home. Turn on the water in one place, and it dissapears as soon as it's turned on somewhere else, Sharp and Cossetti said.

Not only did the residents of Harris Marina RV Park believe that the water was making people sick, appearing green at times during the first minute or so after it was turned on, but, there was not enough of it to go around when they really needed it, the couple exclaimed!

Mary Cosseti believes that her twin sons aged 16, both became very sick from water they drank in the trailer park on August 24, 2002. Both were sick for days and one of them landed in the hospital as a result, Cosetti said.

Lab results dated August 26, 2002 from Kaiser Permanente for Mary Cosetti's hospitalized son, turned up a culture positive for CAMPYLOBACTER. Documents further reveal that her son having been confirmed with camphylobacter, also revealed that Ms. Cosetti was told by the doctor that it was normally from eating undercooked chicken or food, but, also confirmed that it may have come from the water in the trailer park.

With one son ill for a few days and the other ill for nearly a week, Cosetti believes that she was very fortunate that both of her sons recovered their health back, and both she and Steve Sharp became determined to get the water system in the trailer park tested and brought up to code, Cosetti said.

Harris Marina RV Park owned by Linda Ebright, is segregated into 2 sections, one for the newer trailers, and the other for the older trailers, Cosetti and Sharp explains. The newer more expensive trailers get better services than the older models at the trailer park, and it was the 5 trailers in the older section of the park that had people exibiting symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, and high fevers when the water started to go bad during the summer months, said Sharp.

People felt pitted against one another after awhile, said Cosetti, as the residents blamed each other over the lack of water when their complaints to management were ignored by the onsite manager while they turned upon one another in an effort to keep everyone from using too much water.

I was a water hog, but, did'nt realize it claimed Sharp when recollecting on how much water he was using to keep his garden fresh and lawn nice and green. At times his neighbor Judy came by to turn off the water feeding his garden said Sharp, and it was when others moved into the trailer park and started watering their lawns that they all noticed that the water system was inadequate for their needs and lacked pressure.

When it was time to pay rent, in protest he would write "Bad Water" on his checks, said Sharp, hoping that this would get someones attention.

As they all started to complain to Philip Guillion the on-site manager who also is a local mailman, things heated up and he was told by management that if he did'nt like it there that he was welcome to move, said Sharp. Sharp was threatened with eviction, and eventually Sharp and Cosetti felt that management was harassing them for the making of complaints about the water, and they had to get a cease and desist order to keep management off of their backs, said Cosetti.

Meanwhile, the two of them were making contact with their local representatives such as their Assemblyman Guy Houston, and State Senator Tom Toralkson, and they were successful in having their requests made to the Environmantal Health Department for the testing of the small water system at the trailer park to begin.

Finally a September 26, 2002 Notice Of Violation from Contra Costa Health Services was served to the property owner of the trailer park, mentioning the noted low-water pressure at the site, and further stating that inadequate water pressure is in violation of the California Code of Regulations.

In addition, they started going to Mobile Home Meetings where they met Marilyn Smith another local activist, and they started to learn about their rights as mobile home owners. As a result of what they learned, the properly filed complaints, and their meetings with the local representatives, the water tests were completed at the trailer park and a new small water system was eventually installed on site.

Congratulations were in order, but, short lived for these busy activists. They noticed that the new water line was layed out alongside with the old water line which was not shut off at it's source, nor was either line marked to distinguish one from another, said Sharp. The old line needs to be capped off at it's origins and removed so that no one ever uses it again, Cosetti and Sharp asserted.

Much to their astonishment, the activists came to believe that the conducted water tests were fatally flawed, that the old existing problems continued into the new water system, and during a recent Febuary, 2003 meeting with Contra Costra County Supervisor Federal D. Glover, Cosetti and Sharp demanded that the water tests need to be run all over again, and for it to be done properly this time. Some of the old tests were conducted at some of the sites that did not reveal a problem while the problem sites were overlooked, said Sharp.

Research into the documents of the water tests being conducted also appear to have turned up 2 documents with differing results for the same tests being conducted, inferring that something may be amiss in the testing procedures, or that a possible cover up may be taking place, Sharp and Cosetti said.

The activists pointed out that they had their concerns about going to their County Supervisor Federal D. Glover who also works for Dow Chemical Company in Pittsburg, and a check of Glovers website confirms that he has worked at Dow Chemical for nearly 20 years. Other records confirm that Dow Chemical Company located in Pittsburg, has been dumping toxic pollutants upon the community for years and based upon reports during 2000, Dow Chemical dumped 32,842 pounds of toxic pollutants into the region of Pittsburg, according to TRI sources posted on the web site at;

http://www.scorecard.org/.

During the interview with Cosetti and Sharp, it seems to be that there may be a local consensus that the fox in the hen-house routine may be going on with Glover being in office overlooking concerns about polluters in the area, and the people are not to sure about who's interests are being watched over, said Cosetti and Sharp.

No matter what, these 2 are still pushing for new water tests to be conducted, and are demanding that the old lines be completely removed off site at the trailer park.

As another avenue of approach by these 2 activists, they reached out to the local Grand Jury. An April 4, 2003 letter from the Contra Costa County Grand Jury, to Steve Sharp is signed by jury foreman Ramiro A. Arosemena, and states that the information submitted will receive due consideration.

In a further effort to broaden the picture of life in Contra Costa County trailer parks, 43 year old Freddie Oaks who originally is from Northern Mississippi but has been in the Bay Area for the last 22 years, now resides in Emerald Cove RV Park and states that the water tastes like dirt where he lives, and that he uses bottled water. The tap water tastes like dirt, Oaks said during an interview in which he claims that sewage and water problems are common in trailer parks, and some of them have cluster areas of cancer making the people very ill.

Oaks who claims to be a life-long Democrat and aids activist, is the President of the local chapter of the Golden State Mobile Homeowners League comprised of at least 30 active local members with around 38 thousand members state wide. Oaks says, he owns his own mobile home and rents a space for around $495.00 per month in the Contra Costa County Bay Point area.

Trailer Parks are a way of life that many turn to, said Oaks who goes on to describe that most trailer parks have many of the same problems because the laws on the books to protect the residents are generally not enforced and that inspections are often done improperly.

Steve Sharp and Mary Cosetti have done a service to their community and deserve the recognition of their dedication and perseverence for their efforts to bring clean water to their community.