Last year we talked about a shigella outbreak that had been confirmed by Butte County Health Dept.
A friend of ours had reported his own illness, and then we started hearing about other cases. The city admitted an outbreak at a “sanctioned” camp, but denied it was a public health problem. The county reported 44 cases by August, and it became apparent that this illness was making it’s way up the state by way of “unhoused individuals”. But the city of Chico still denied any problem and refused to do anything about it.
From the Safe Drinking Water Foundation –
Shigellae may be more prevalent in surface waters, such as rivers, lakes and shallow wells, than in groundwater sources. Surface waters can be easily contaminated by sewage. Water treatment plants can remove Shigellae with the use of chlorine, so the bacteria are more prevalent in raw, untreated water. Shigellosis occurs more in the summer than in the winter. Communities that effectively treat sewage and keep water supplies safe drastically reduce the number of cases of shigellosis.
One Mile Pool should have been closed. As you read above, “shigellae” are hard to detect in surface water like creeks, and how would they treat the creek?
By October the city was still assuring the public that One Mile was being tested and cleaned regularly.
This year the city finally had to admit there’s a problem and close the pool after several children ended up at UC Davis hospital in Sacramento.
Now it’s e coli. These kids are in serious condition, with what could very well amount to life-long problems, for a swim in the park? But the city was still denying the situation could be linked to a bacteria problem at One Mile as of a week ago. Now they’ve posted a “no swimming advisory”, which I believe is all they need to do legally to keep from being sued any further. But I think it’s too late, I think these kids will have a conga-line of lawyers at their door.
The city won’t admit that their laissez-faire camping policies have turned One Mile into a cesspool – ” container for the temporary storage of liquid waste and sewage.” It’s against the law, and always has been, to defecate or urinate within proximity of a stream or waterway. I remember when the police used to hand out tickets to Chico State students for public urination – now this?
Folks, you get what you’ll accept.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
I’ve been swimming in the one mile for 60 years. It has always been a treasure. Back in the day it had a lot less traffic (people). But it seems to me that the caliber of folks that went there was different. It was families with kids. It was always college students. Now it seems to be the pot-smoking, drug use, homeless crowd. And I can’t blame them. If I was homeless and was looking for a place to hang out, I’d chose the one mile as well. It just doesn’t make it the family-friendly place it once was. The maintenance of the pool has definitely gone down hill. Landscaping sucks, cement is buckling, it is not treated like a City treasure. I’m sure that that has something to do with City budgets, which in turn has to do with the giant sucking sound that you hear, which is money being sucked into the bottomless pit known as City pensions.
I had a friend that came up to visit Chico from the bay area. She was a county health officer in the North Bay. She couldn’t believe that the City of Chico had a swimming area, in town, formed from a creek! Is it safe, she would say? Well,, it has been for the last 50 years.
Even 40 years ago, there were always kids claiming that the got an ear infection from the one mile. And they were probably right. But overuse and camping in the park have turned it into an untreated sewer run off.
How do you save this one? How about ICE agents an cops at the one mile? And allocate some City budget to upkeep! Just a thought.
Thanks, your experience echoes mine. I have many happy childhood memories of a much better maintained park, family that drove for many miles on weekends to picnic with us there, and how they used to say that we were soooo lucky! to have such a gem.
Yes, it’s exactly what you say. If you treat a creek like a toilet it becomes a toilet. We’re living a nightmare – city officials who won’t do their job, who spend most of their time guaranteeing their own pay and benefits.
Why did they go along with the Shelter Crisis Designation and the Warren vs Chico settlement? For the money, plain and simple. What can we do about it? Join Howard Jarvis Association and ask them to help. When the city tried to slide in a Pension Obligation Bond, HJTA issued a cease and desist to stop it. They also keep us more informed of state legislation and efforts to protect the taxpayers than our own legislators do.
That’s my only suggestion, because I don’t see any local group that has half an idea what the real problems are with our city or the gumption to do anything but write profanities on old pizza boxes and stand around on the corner shouting obscenities about Trump.