II. Community Overview

The Service Area Definition

For purposes of the DRIS Initiative, the entire County of Imperial is defined as the service area. Imperial County covers nearly 2.7 million acres and is located in the southeast corner of California. It is bordered on the west by San Diego County, on the north by Riverside County, on the east by the State of Arizona, and to the south by Mexico. With a countywide population of approximately 140,000, the largest cities in Imperial County are El Centro (37,500 population), Brawley (21,500) and Calexico (25,150). The City of Mexicali is located next to Calexico on the international border with Mexico, and is the capital city of the state of Baja California Norte. An industrial and agricultural center, Mexicali has approximately 775,000 permanent residents.

Imperial County has an agricultural and tourism based economy. Predominantly a desert region, early settlers worked hard to claim the land for agricultural purposes through the construction of the All American Canal, which brings water from the Colorado River, 60 miles away. This transformed the Imperial Valley into an important agricultural region. Leading commodities include livestock and products, field crops and vegetables. The County is diversifying its economy to include manufacturing and technology services. Several Enterprise Zones and Free Trade Zones exist in Imperial County, as a way of encouraging and attracting new businesses.

The following map shows Imperial County’s ZIP codes to help orient the reader to the geographic area represented by each ZIP code. Only ZIP codes representing the physical location of a residence are mapped; post office boxes and rural delivery route addresses do not appear. When health data presented in this report was gathered at the ZIP code level, data ascribed to ZIP Codes assigned to post office boxes were enclosed in the corresponding geographic ZIP code listed in the table below.

Table 2.1
Imperial County ZIP Codes by Community

Source: GDT Inc., Dynamap ZIP Version 5.0, 1997

Community	Zip Code	Post Office Box ZIP Codes
Brawley	92227
Calexico, Mount Signal	92231	92232 - Calexico
Calipatria	92233
El Centro	92243	92244 - El Centro, 92273 - Seeley, 92275 - Salton City, Thermal
Heber	92249
Holtville, Bonds Corner	92250
Imperial	92251
Niland, Bombay Beach	92257
Ocotillo	92259
Thermal, 100 Palms, Sandy Korner, Torres Martinez Indian Reservation, Valeri	92274
Westmorland	92281
Winterhaven, Felicity	92283	92266 - Palo Verde

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