Residents of Compton have complained about brown, smelly water coming out of their taps for more than a year. Cole Edwards said in an interview with The Times before the meeting that the water district had hired him to place the Craigslist ad and find supporters.
The Times reviewed text messages and emails he said he exchanged with a district official, along with a list of questions supporters were to ask at the forum. Organizer Kathrina Abrot said in an interview that she worked with the water district and Edwards to hire canvassers who were tasked with finding people to attend the town hall.
Sativa, which serves parts of working-class Compton and Willowbrook, strongly denied that it hired the supporters. Administrative manager Maria Rachelle Garza said she was unaware of people being paid to attend the meeting, or that a Craigslist ad even existed. Sativa has faced years of complaints from consumers and survived earlier attempts to disband it. The Times in reported allegations of poor financial oversight and mismanagement at the district, including that the board members had awarded themselves bereavement pay and Christmas bonuses not allowed under state law.
County officials insist that the brown water is safe to drink but acknowledge that it contains higher than normal levels of manganese. They said the problem comes from aging pipes, and that the district occasionally flushes out sediment that builds up in the system.
The pipes need to be replaced in a multimillion-dollar infrastructure project, according to Garza. Some said the brown and yellow-brown water coming out of faucets has worsened in recent months. Others wanted to know how Sativa would fix the issue. She said she had complained many times. She said it got worse in recent years, flowing chestnut brown or yellow and smelling like rust or chlorine.
