March 28, 2024
Health officials OK reopening of Santa Ana River
JURUPA VALLEY – (INT) – A section of the Santa Ana River where two people became ill after coming in contact with the water has been reopened.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board and the County Public Health Department made the recommendation Thursday.

Officials did not disclose what was found in the water explaining because rivers are naturally flowing bodies of water, testing only provides a snapshot in time.

Officials warned against ingesting the water.

They suspected that the victims contracted Shigellosis, an illness caused by bacteria called Shigella that cause diarrhea in humans. Symptoms of shigellosis include diarrhea, which is often bloody, fever, and abdominal cramps. Symptoms usually occur within four days after exposure to Shigella, and last five to seven days. Most people with shigellosis recover completely.

Most of the flow in the river below the city of San Bernardino consists of effluent from 45 wastewater treatment plants and dry season urban runoff and does not have the same level of cleanliness as a public swimming pool, which has filtration and disinfection safeguards.

Using DNA-based water quality tests, Clean Camp Coalition earlier set out to determine if the people in homeless encampments along the river, where public restrooms don’t exist, are contaminating the water with human excrement and other waste.

Decades of urban runoff, improperly treated wastewater, leaky sewers and septic tanks, chemical and metallic contaminants, pet waste, and animal manure have led to segments of the Santa Ana river being included on the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of polluted waterways.

Story Date: August 23, 2019
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