EL RIO : District to Annex Trailer Park

The board of the Calleguas Municipal Water District has voted to annex the Royal Duke I Mobile Estates in El Rio, whose water supply is contaminated by nitrates.

The board made the decision Wednesday, and the city of Oxnard will also consider annexing the trailer park later this month. Both annexations are required before the park can receive Calleguas water, said Tom Anderle, a lawyer for Calleguas. The Oxnard city boundary divides the Ventura Boulevard park from its sister trailer park, the Royal Duke II Mobile Estates, which is within the Oxnard city limits.

The 137-space Royal Duke I trailer park is now served by a private well that has sometimes had nitrate levels above state limits, said Jim Murdoch, owner of LaCumbre Management Co., which manages the trailer park. Nitrate contamination, caused by runoff from fertilizer and septic tanks, is common in the unincorporated communities of El Rio and Nyeland, north of Oxnard.

Nitrate contamination in drinking water can cause death in infants by inhibiting the blood’s ability to carry oxygen.

It also is a suspected cause of cancer in adults.

Annexation would allow the mobile home park to hook into Oxnard’s water system.

Oxnard buys two-thirds of its water from Calleguas, a water wholesaler.

Anderle said Calleguas will charge the trailer park $28,214 for the annexation. Murdoch said the city’s rent review board will determine how much of that cost can be passed on to trailer park residents.

Murdoch said his company considered building a filtration system for the existing well, but still would have had to dispose of the nitrates.