Where: Salinas, Monterey County, California
Problem: A low-income housing cooperative for farmworkers lacked access to safe drinking water and its wastewater system did not comply with state standards.
Solution: RCAC secured a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Engineers Without Borders to resolve both water issues, so the design costs could be kept to a minimum for the extremely low income community.
San Jerardo is a 67-unit, low-income housing facility for farmworkers located seven miles southeast of Salinas, California. The water system serves about 300 residents and includes 67 water and wastewater connections. The average annual income per family is $20,000.
The Monterey County Department of Public Health required San Jerardo to find a new source of water, as the existing source had high nitrate levels and chemical impacts from the nearby agricultural fields. The wastewater pond system was also crumbling, and county officials also suspected that it was leaking wastewater effluent into the drinking water wells, causing residents to become ill. As a temporary measure, County of Monterey Public Works provided bottled water to residents.
RCAC contacted Engineers Without Borders (EWB) to inquire about taking San Jerardo on as a project. RCAC applied on behalf of the community and was accepted so RCAC, EWB and San Jerardo signed an MOU to have EWB provide engineering services at no costs. This was a huge savings for the community.
Using $2,794,490 in grants and loans, RCAC staff worked with the Salinas District supervisor, regional water quality control board members and also County of Monterey Public Works and Health Dept. officials to develop and construct a new drinking water system. The goal was also to restore groundwater as a potable source and to bring the water system into compliance.
In addition, RCAC staff helped the community hire and educate water system operators, and conduct a rate study to establish a new water rate. RCAC staff also assisted San Jerardo on the Wastewater improvements and gathered relevant data to develop standard operating procedures, and later to complete and submit the plant classification to the California Water Resources Control Board, which helped to establish the operator level and duties. RCAC staff also reviewed the engineering documents relating to the new equipment warranties and flow meter information, and mapped out a troubleshooting guide.
All in all, RCAC worked with the San Jerardo residents for five years. RCAC was successful in leveraging funds for the project, and throughout, provided the community with expertise and assistance to complete the upgrades to the water system, educated the community on how to run the system and effectively communicated with all of the involved regulatory agencies.
“RCAC, with the collaboration of Karen McBride and other agencies, helped the San Jerardo community in getting clean drinking water,” said Horacio Amezquita, General Manager at the San Jerardo Cooperative.
