The Yucca Valley Walmart was slapped with a cease-and-desist order at yesterday’s meeting and public hearing of the Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board in Yucca Valley for violations at its package wastewater treatment plant. Reporter Mike Lipsitz was there…
Walmart owns and operates the package sewage treatment plant, which is located off the western most parking lot and which also serves the adjacent Panda Express and Taco Bell restaurants. Board Executive Director Jose Angel called the retailer’s record “spotty at best.” His office recommended the cease-and-desist order because of the store’s multi-year history of data showing violations of effluent limits as well as failure to install a disinfection system until well after the contract deadline. Walmart has indicated it intends to abandon the wastewater treatment facility and connect to Hi-Desert Water District’s centralized sewage collection system once available, projected to be August 2019. Despite the sound of it, the cease-and-desist order does not require the retailer to discontinue plant operations, but rather, it mandates a road map of actions necessary to bring operations into compliance. The overseeing board wants to see the retail giant hire an outside expert to make recommendations and then have Walmart to implement them.
