Bill addresses water quality at mobile home parks

A look at HB1257

BY HEATHER SACKETT ASPEN JOURNALISM

State legislators have introduced a bill that would create a water-testing program at mobile home parks, addressing residents’ long-standing concerns about water quality.

House Bill 1257, which is sponsored by District 57 Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, D-Gar eld County, would require the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to create a water-testing program that covers all mobile home parks in the state by 2028. If the testing nds a water-quality issue, the park owner must come up with a remediation plan and not pass the cost of xing the problem on to the residents.

e testing results would be made available to park residents and the public in English, Spanish and other languages. e bill would also require park owners to identify the water source and establish a grant program to help park owners pay for remediation options such as infrastructure upgrades.

e bill was introduced March 26, and its other sponsors are Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, D- Larimer County, and Sen. Lisa Cutter, DJe erson County. Velasco, who said she lived in mobile home parks growing up, said she has heard complaints from residents about discolored water that stains clothes, smells and tastes bad, causes skin rashes, and breaks appliances. But often, those complaints go unaddressed because the water may still meet the standards of the

Environmental Protection Agency’s Safe Drinking Water Act.

“ e odor, the taste, the color, those are secondary traits of the water, according to these regulations,” Velasco said. “ ese issues are in low-income communities, majority people of color. ese issues are not happening to wealthy families.”

Environmental justice issue

Water quality in mobile home parks is an environmental-justice issue for the Latino community. According to the Colorado Latino Climate Justice Policy Handbook, nearly 20% of Latino households live in mobile homes. And according to survey results in the 2022 Colorado Latino Policy Agenda, 41% of mobile home residents said they do not trust or drink the water in their homes. Eighty percent of survey respondents said they support new regulations requiring that mobile home parks provide their residents with clean drinking water.

Beatriz Soto is executive director of Protegete, a Latino-led environmental initiative of Conservation Colorado that developed the climate justice handbook. Conservation Colorado supports the bill. Soto, who also lived in mobile home parks in the Roaring Fork valley, said for years she has heard the same complaints Velasco did about water quality, so she knew it was a top priority for the Latino community. e survey results con rmed the anecdotes. “ is is not just little things we are hearing here and there in the community; this is a bigger issue,” Soto said. “When you work two jobs and