IVAN DELGADO/Coachella Unincorporated
EASTERN COACHELLA VALLEY — With its lavish resorts and golf courses, the Coachella Valley is a getaway to some and a retirement home for others. But beyond the shadow of the country clubs and music festivals lies a Coachella Valley that is largely unknown.
“Revealing the Invisible Coachella Valley: Putting Cumulative Environmental Vulnerabilities on the Map,” a report released last week by the University of California Davis Center for Regional Change, shows the cumulative environmental health hazards of living in the Eastern Coachella Valley.
“You can see the east versus west story,” said Jonathan London, principal investigator and primary study author, “where in the west valley, there are much lower levels of environmental hazards, and much higher levels for quality of life, compared to the east.”
While this data seems to state the obvious to those living and working in the ECV, it wasn’t until recently that people outside the area began to take notice of these environmental issues. For example, a storm in September 2012 flooded mobile home parks, including Duroville, and spread the odor of decomposing organic matter from the Salton Sea to Los Angeles.
Read more at Coachella Unincorporated
