Location: Unincorporated San Diego County, California

Problem:  A mobile-home park in a disadvantaged community needed funding to replace a well that produces water with nitrate levels exceeding federal maximum containment levels

Solution: Rural Community Assistance Corporation’s (RCAC) Loan Fund provided a $272,025 bridge loan to complete work required to obtain grant funding

Quiet Oaks Mobile Home Park is a 45-unit park located in Sunshine Summit, a very rural community in unincorporated San Diego County. There are about 400 residents who live in homes and the mobile-home park. The median household income (MHI) was $36,838, which is far below the county MHI of $64,309.

The mobile-home park receives water from a well that has nitrate levels that exceed federal maximum containment levels. RCAC environmental staff have been providing technical assistance for the park through a San Diego Integrated Water Management Grant under Prop 84. The grant will fund a project that includes a nitrate treatment system on the existing groundwater well.

RCAC’s Loan Fund provided a $272,025 bridge loan to cover predevelopment work that is necessary prior to the well renovation and nitrate removal project. RCAC’s environmental staff will assist the park owner with reimbursement requests through California Department of Water Resources.

The funds will help to quickly move the project forward to completion and provide the community with safe drinking water, as reimbursements can take up to three or four months to be processed.