Residents of the Chula Vista subdivision off Old Tucson Road had a lot on their minds when county staff showed up Tuesday evening for an update on the flood-control project in their neighborhood. Some 40 residents met at a community park and flung questions at District 2 Supervisor Rudy Molera and Public Works Secretary Angie Pimienta.

Is the dirt that was dredged from the sewer construction across the street contaminated? Who will fumigate the bugs coming out of the sewer that crawl through the neighborhood? What will the county do about the trucks that drive into their narrow streets?

Now they had a new worry: news that the flood-control project designed to protect them had stopped in its tracks.

“It has been very difficult here,” Molera told the residents. “The problems continue.”

Last summer, construction crews dismantled a bridge north of the entrance to their neighborhood as part of the Chula Vista Flood Control Project. It was supposed to be rebuilt by now, but work to replace a section of the sewer line that connects Nogales, Sonora, with the wastewater treatment plant in Rio Rico halted about three weeks ago, said Ken Zehentner, project manager.

“The engineers are dealing with the problem with the sewer,” Molera told the residents. “But the new line is not yet connected.”

Working under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Meridian Engineering Co. carved a winding detour around the downed bridge that leads into the subdivision. Truck drivers continue to turn on Old Tucson Road to head north, despite orange signs in English and Spanish that warn about no exit.

“We have put up more signs to tell the semi-truck drivers not to drive through the neighborhood,” Molera said in an interview. “They come in thinking there’s a way to the (produce) warehouses.”

Resident Cecilia Valenzuela told the board of supervisors on Wednesday that a semi-truck turned around near the entrance of the subdivision on Monday and nearly hit her home. When she called the sheriff’s office, no deputy responded, she said.

Public Works Department secretary Angie Pimienta said that the department has posted more signs about no through traffic. Lt. Raoul Rodriguez of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said if the county paints red “no parking” zones” in Chula Vista, his deputies enforce them.

At the Tuesday night meeting, Valenzuela showed Molera a story in the Nogales International that listed projects the county wanted the U.S. Congress to fund. She thought the Palo Parado crossing in Rio Rico was going to take priority over finishing the Chula Vista project.

“The biggest part of the funding coming to this project is money Palo Parado can’t use,” Zehentner told the residents. “It’s through the Army Corps of Engineers.”

Funding for the flood-control project has come in bits and pieces, Zehentner explained. “They (Congress) seldom have the money to pay a project all at once.”

Once it’s finished, the flood-control project will cost an estimated $44 million, Zehentner said. But Congress has just allocated another $2.5 million for the project, thanks to Democrat U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva and Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl.

“When are they going to pick up the garbage?” asked Celia Derrellez. Other residents complained that the county doesn’t pick up their yard waste.

Chula Vista is in the county, which does not provide a service to collect garbage, Molera said in an interview. He offered to call Canyon Disposal, which picks up trash, but heard residents say they didn’t want a Dumpster parked in their neighborhood, he said.

Residents get their water from the Valle Verde Water Co. and the City of Nogales provides the sewer service, Molera said.

Chula Vista and the Pete Kitchen mobile home park are not part of the City of Nogales, said Arturo Garino, Nogales city councilman and vice mayor.

Resident Loly Luna pointed to the mounds of earth piled south of the neighborhood and told the Nogales International she was afraid it was contaminated.

“They (construction crews) bring it out wet like mud,” said Luna, who has lived in Chula Vista for nine years. “It smells terrible.”

When the subdivision floods in the summer, the water comes from the direction of the earth mounds, Luna said. “The rains are going to come and they’re going to lose the whole project,” she said.

There was limited flooding in the subdivision last summer, which Zehentner attributes to water being rerouted from the Nogales Wash to Potrero Creek, he said in an interview.

“I can’t promise that the dirt will be moved by next year,” Zehentner said.

Workers encountered unstable soil and a lot of groundwater as they attempted to create a new section of the International Outfall Interceptor that would be level with the new bridge, Zehentner said. “We cannot construct the new bridge until we have the replacement segment constructed and accepted.”

When a consultant for the Corps of Engineers ran a camera through the new pipe, he discovered problems, Zehentner said. His report should be final by the end of March and the Corps will decide what to do.