The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently issued emergency orders under the Safe Drinking Water Act to three mobile home parks in California due to unsafe levels of arsenic in drinking water.

The mobile home parks, all located on the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe's Reservation, are required to comply with federal drinking water requirements and identify the issue with their water systems, a Dec. 28, 2021 EPA press release said.

"We have recently completed inspections and sampling of a number of smaller drinking water systems in Indian country that exceed arsenic drinking water standards,” EPA Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest Martha Guzman said in the release. “These orders require measures to achieve compliance and access to safe drinking water at these mobile home communities.”

The three mobile home parks are Mora Mobile Home Park, Valladares Mobile Home Park and Toledo Mobile Home Park, the release said. In addition to the emergency orders, the EPA also issued a $3,021 fine to Indian Village Mobile Home Park for failing to hire a certified drinking water operator in accordance with an emergency order issued in 2020.

The mobile home parks are required by the emergency order to inform all residents of the arsenic levels, provide one gallon a day per resident at no cost, submit a plan for compliance to the EPA, and monitor their water systems and report any findings to the agency, the release said.

The parks’ water systems rely on groundwater, which produces naturally occurring arsenic, the release said. Currently, the amount of arsenic produced in the wells is above the legal limit of 10 parts per billion for drinking water with over 100 residents affected.

EPA has standards in place that protect drinking water from more than 90 contaminants, the EPA website said. Nationwide, more than 92% of people supplied by community water systems receive drinking water that meets all health-based standards.