Video: Central Basin Dir. Leticia Vasquez Calls Downey’s Water ‘Undrinkable’ – C…

Central Basin Director Leticia Vasquez-Wilson in front of a Downey water well, the video is at the end of the story.

BY BRIAN HEWS • April 5, 2021

In a shocking video shot by a blog the name of which HMG-CN will refrain from publishing, controversial Central Basin Director Leticia Vasquez was seen accusing the city of Downey and their city-owned water company of pumping “undrinkable water” to the city’s residents.

The blogger also slammed Coca-Cola and other companies for using the undrinkable water.

The March 22, 2021 YouTube video shows the blogger introducing CB Director Leticia Vasquez-Wilson as a “water director in Southeast L.A. giving a tour of Downey’s water facilities helping us to understand troubling patterns of water contamination.”

Vasquez then shows a Feb. 2021 memo from Downey Public Works, “let me go through some of this water contamination which is really troubling.”

The memo stated that the city’s water had not exceeded the Response Levels of 10 parts per million (ppt) for PFOA and 40 ppt for PFOS.

Response Levels are measured on a rolling four-quarter basis, taking the last four quarters and dividing those numbers by four.

But the city’s memo stated, “these are the first quarter (2021) numbers, since only the first quarter sampling has been completed the other three quarters are considered to have zero values,” meaning the numbers did not take into account previous measures.

According to the well numbers on the memo, the PFOA ppt’s were above Response Levels of 10 ppt in almost every well; the PFOS were above Response Levels of 40 ppt in only a couple wells.

“We are working to bring attention to this particular issue,” said Vasquez, “our citizens deserve to have clean safe water that is drinkable, and unfortunately it’s not drinkable.”

Vasquez does not live in Downey and the city is not in her district, Downey is part of Division One, represented by Martha Camacho Rodriguez.

The video then showed pictures of the entire Downey City Council with Vasquez adding, “we demand our Mayor and City Councilmembers take action to clean up our local water supply.”

“Extremely strange,” said one angry Downey resident, “the elected director of a water agency that Downey buys water from is running around Downey with a little known blogger frightening people calling Downey’s water undrinkable.”

Although the numbers are alarming, the water is certainly not undrinkable with state law mandating the water agency notify the state and list actions it will take to correct the situation.

Downey lawyers felt the same way and fired off a letter to the blogger and Vasquez-Wilson calling the video and statements false and defamatory.

An ironic twist since the litigious Vasquez-Wilson uses her husband-lawyer Ron Wilson as her personal false and defamatory lawsuit cudgel.

___________________________________