For the monthly space rental fee that residents of the Lightner Creek Mobile Home Park pay, they should be assured that the waste materials that flow through each home’s pipes are properly treated. That is a minimum expectation for tenants.
It is reinforced, in the mobile home park’s case, in several ways: that the park is situated on the bank of Lightner Creek – what should be a relatively pristine waterway, and one that flows into the Animas River; that downstream neighbors rely on those upstream to behave properly with respect to handling waste materials that could find their way into the creek; and, perhaps most fundamentally, because the state of Colorado requires its residents and business owners to comply with the Clean Water Act. In each of these cases, Lightner Creek Mobile Home Park’s owners failed in their responsibility – to their residents, to their neighbors, to the state of Colorado and to the waters of Lightner Creek and beyond.
That the state took more than a decade to get serious about the matter is nearly as upsetting as the fact that an out-of-date, unlined sewage lagoon has been steadily leaking human excrement, urine and other unsavory materials into a shared public waterway. What is worse is that the mobile home park owners’ have demonstrated nary a care – let alone a plan of action for fixing the problem.
Federal and state law could not be more clear on the matter: In order to discharge anything into a public waterway, individuals and businesses must receive a permit to do so under the Clean Water Act, as enforced by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Water Quality Control Division. The mobile home park had such a permit, with stipulations requiring water quality monitoring on Lightner Creek both upstream and downstream from the lagoon. However, the permit did not allow for discharge into the creek, and the park applied for but did not receive an updated permit in 2010. In the meantime, sewage has been steadily leaking into Lightner Creek with no documented effort at a remedy.
The state finally issued a cease and desist order last month, but the park’s owners took their time in responding to the demands – among them was to engage an engineer to assess the situation. It appears that work has at least been arranged, if not begun.
The story is far from over, but the list of those injured is already lengthy. First are the park’s residents, who through no fault of their own, have been living with inadequate and unsafe sewage treatment facilities. Next are the park’s neighbors – many of whom have water rights to the creek – as well as all those who utilize Lightner Creek for recreation, irrigation and other critical purposes. Certainly the Animas River and its users have been affected. There are surely others, including the non-human communities affected: wildlife, water quality, etc.
Lightner Creek Mobile Home Park has been a poor neighbor and scofflaw. The state of Colorado’s response has been lackluster. Both need to change – and quickly.
