Water Leader Claims So-Called Spill Killed People

MSWD director claims Mission Springs Water District’s ‘intentional act of dumping raw COVID-infected sewage’ into the neighborhoods killed people

DESERT HOT SPRINGS — Steve Grasha, a member of the Mission Springs Water District board of directors, alleges a so-called “spill” of raw sewage into the neighborhoods in September 2020 was “a long-term and ongoing intentional release of COVID-infected Sewage” that killed people.

He is seeking the help of a chief investigator in the Riverside County District Attorney’s office. In an email Grasha sent the investigator on Friday, July 16, Grasha stated that, “A proper and thorough criminal investigation would likely prove the intentional act of dumping raw COVID infected sewage by Mission Springs Water District into our neighborhoods, which they are calling a “spill,” is … in violation of every environmental crime law imaginable.”

Millions of gallons of untreated COVID-infected sewage poured into adjacent neighborhoods where children and families live and play, Grasha claims.

The District Attorney has reportedly been monitoring this situation.

“I will look into this and get back to you when I know anything,” John Hall, public information officer for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, told Uken Report.

This allegation may be proven by a simple audit of the solid waste disposal by MSWD’s solid waste hauler, Grasha alleges. He claims the waste not trucked to the licensed disposal facility but was released into the neighborhoods in an attempt to coverup the “ongoing and never-ending acts of depravity” to coverup for years of horrid leadership. Grasha alleges one of those acts, giving away critical district-owned meant for the expansion of the Horton Wastewater Treatment Plant, was instead used for a city park to curry favor with voters at the cost of dumping millions of gallons of raw COVID infected sewage into the neighboring community filled with innocent children and families.

Grasha claims the land give-away was to curry favor with voters at the cost of dumping millions of gallons of raw COVID- infected sewage into the community filled with innocent children and families.

“These acts of depravity MUST be fully investigated by CRIMINAL investigators and not the clerks that work directly for Nancy Wright who chairs both the agency charged with investigation and the agency that did the likely criminal dumping of raw COVID infected sewage into our neighborhoods,” Grasha stated in his letter to the investigator,

An audit of solid waste disposal records and truck weights and trips will likely show that sewage was not treated to the appropriate safety levels potentially causing the death rate from COVID in the neighborhood to be double that of other areas of Riverside County, Grasha claims.

That could prove challenging as Grasha alleges the email server was removed from the district office likely containing evidence that may help to prove the this was an intentional act that may have literally killed people.

The COVID death rate in the area of the intentional sewage release seems to be about double of neighboring communities, Grasha said.

“A simple water-use restriction would have saved lives but was not (ordered) to avoid scrutiny by the public in the closing days of the November election,” Grasha said. “They may have killed people for their own political benefit.”

In a July 8, 2021 letter to the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, which oversees MSWD, iArden Wallum
General Manager/Chief Engineer for MSWD, writes that immediate corrective and preventative actions have been implemented to bring the discharge into full compliance

Grasha was elected to the Mission Springs Water District Board in November 2018 with more votes than anyone in the 70-year history of the Mission Springs Water District. Since then, he has been investigated for possible residency violations as they relate to his seat on the board. The investigation found Grasha in full compliance.

Grasha, known for being outspoken and sometimes loud, prompted his colleagues in January 2020 to call law enforcement. Police were called to a Mission Springs Water District Study Session to escort Grasha from the meeting after a discussion escalated into yelling and foul language.

The heated exchange involved a consultant, Robert Deloche, who was hired to assemble a draft Board of Directors Handbook.

Despite efforts to deter and silence him, Grasha remains undeterred.

You may read MSWD President Nancy Wright’s blistering response in its entirety here. 

Editor’s note: Uken Report is a digital media platform, not a blog as Wright references,