CHICO — Two waterborne bacteria may be linked to outbreaks of illness at Chico’s sanctioned campground by the Chico Regional Airport.
Butte County Public Health is aware of a possible contamination of coliform bacteria in a water tap installed at the site on the northwest corner of Eaton and Cohasset roads. E. coli and shigella are suspected. The reports of bacterial infections follow a shigella outbreak reported at homeless camps in Oroville around May.
Lisa Almaguer of BCPH said in an email Wednesday the department is working closely with the City of Chico on addressing the reported contamination at the Chico camp, and recommended the city use a third-party water testing agency to test the water. Almaguer said the water at the location, as of Wednesday, has not been lab-confirmed to be unsafe.
Community members who outreach to homeless people at the camp tested water with home test kits after people living at the camp expressed worry that the water, which people depend on for cooling off in the heat or drinking, may be contaminated.
Dorian Vale, who has been delivering food and supplies camp regularly for about two years delivering, said people living there reported a stomach bug going around and had concerns that it was the water making them sick.
Vale said she took three water testing kits she had on hand from a Chico State lab, and sampled the water on June 30 with an accompanying water hose attached, and July 7 without the hose attached; each producing positive results for the bacteria coliform.
Almaguer said initial water testing at the camp was not collected correctly and was not performed by a certified sampler or tested at a certified lab.
Chico City Manager Mark Sorensen said the city consulted BCPH, which reported that conditions after the water spigot are likely the cause of any contamination. The water tap there was installed in 2023 after homeless advocates requested Chico to deliver water to the camp.
Sorensen said the Public Works Department is coordinating with a contractor, Fruit Growers Laboratory, for a formal sample and test for total coliform including fecal, E. coli and residual chlorine.
Vale and other community members expressed worry for homeless people living there because people use the water to bathe as a way to keep cool without shade, and may get sick from doing so.
Symptoms
Almaguer, BCPH’s public information officer, said coliforms are bacteria present in digestive tracts in animals including humans, and found in their wastes. Most coliform do not cause disease, Almaguer said, but may be an indication of other issues in the water. Proper hygiene practices are recommended to prevent the spread of illness.
Vale said she is concerned that a stomach bug, combined with extreme heat, may cause severe dehydration that may be deadly; and that people using water there to bathe, as a way to keep cool without shade, may get sick from doing so.
“Once its really over 110 degrees, being soaking wet really is the only way to cool off if you don’t have shade,” Vale said. “And even if people aren’t drinking the water — which is dangerous on its own already — having to soak themselves in it, they’re still at risk for infection.
“And you get a stomach bug in extreme heat, between vomiting and diarrhea, that’s just a recipe for deadly dehydration,” she added. “Multiple people out there have expressed to me they’re really concerned that people are going to die on these over 110 degree days.”
No one has yet died from dehydration, but several people at the camp have been reportedly hospitalized after feeling stomach bug symptoms in the past month since the shigella outbreak was reported by Butte County Public Health.
A man living in a tent at the camp, who goes by the name Smiley, said more than half of the people at the camp experienced stomach bugs in the past month, including him. Smiley said he’s two weeks into recovering after an eight-day sickness that made him throw up and have diarrhea.
“I lost a lot of weight, at least 10 pounds. It’s immobilizing man,” Smiley said.
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Charles Withuhn, whose group North State Shelter Team provides showers there each week, said two wound-care nurses he worked with reported people came back from the hospital with positive results for shigella and E. Coli.
He said people became sick in the time after Chico police visited the camp in May to distribute hand sanitizer and notices that shigella had been detected in the area.
“The cops came out and they had little Ziploc bags with a little slip of paper in it telling us we might be getting sick in a couple of weeks, Smiley said. “And sure as shit we all got sick.”
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