Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
February 5, 2008
4. Water Quality
Marin sewage spill prompts calls for probe - San Francisco Chronicle
SEWAGE OVERFLOW:
Sonoma Valley sewage spill fouls creeks leading to bay - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
REGULATION:
Vista,
WASTEWATER ISSUES:
City gets sewer deadline extended - Auburn Journal
Marin sewage spill prompts calls for probe
San Francisco Chronicle – 2/5/08
By Marisa Lagos, staff writer
(02-04) 17:37 PST San Francisco - -- A state senator and environmentalists are calling for a probe of public notification procedures following last week's spill of 2.7 million gallons of raw and treated sewage into San Francisco Bay.
It took at least three hours for officials at the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin to realize there was an overflow Thursday evening at its
The public and media weren't informed of the spill until Friday afternoon, about 20 hours after the incident occurred.
The spill contaminated
State Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, said the notification delay is cause for concern, in part because the incident happened just months after a container ship slammed into the
Migden, who didn't find out about the sewage spill until Friday, will ask for a state investigation, she said, possibly to be conducted by the joint legislative audit committee.
"What our Senate office will be trying to address is who's responsible for telling who when, and how can the public be well assured that our emergency response teams are doing everything humanly possible on a 24/7 basis to respond, mitigate or prevent disastrous consequences," she said.
The environmental group Save the Bay also has requested an investigation into the incident. Save the Bay Executive Director David Lewis sent a letter to the head of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board on Monday, asking officials to probe the circumstances that led to the spill, as well as the delay in notifying the public.
He also asked authorities to determine whether there is a history of such errors at the
"Because residents and key public health agencies were not notified promptly about the spill, people who swam, kayaked or came in contact with the bay on Friday morning near the spill site unknowingly put themselves at risk of potential health threats," the letter said.
The sewage problems began around 5:30 p.m. Thursday after a worker failed to set up enough pumps to handle all the water in the sewage plant. A blend of treated and untreated sewage overflowed after all the plant workers had left, pouring into Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio creek and Bothin Marsh, a tidal wetland.
The overflow triggered an alert to an off-site, private dispatch service that should have let an on-call operator know about the problem. However, the operator didn't answer, and instead of calling another official, the dispatcher left a voice mail message. A plant worker monitoring operations on his computer was the first to notice the problem around 8:30 p.m.
Officials from the governor's Office of Emergency Services said Monday that they handled the spill in accordance with their procedures, noting that it's up to local government to notify the public and the media. Spokesman Greg Renick said state emergency services officials were first notified at 11:16 p.m. and then contacted the "public safety answering points" in Marin,
By 11:58 p.m., Renick said, the agency had also told
On Friday morning, Renick said, the director of the emergency services office also made "personal calls" to local elected officials in the affected areas, and "courtesy notifications" to the health and environmental health departments in
On Monday,
And even if the local "public safety answering points" were notified of the problem Thursday night, some agencies within those local jurisdictions weren't told until the next day. For example, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which monitors water quality at
Migden said there should be a very specific chain of command for such notifications.
"What I fear is that we're too complex, not streamlined, and there are too many people calling too many people. It's confounding, and I want to simplify this," she said. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/05/BAGOURT5S.DTL&hw=water&sn=001&sc=1000
SEWAGE OVERFLOW:
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 2/5/08
By Bob Norberg, staff writer
Heavy weekend rain caused the sewer system to overflow in the
The spill occurred overnight Saturday when sewer pipes overflowed in Boyes Hot Springs and Fetters Hot Springs, said Tim Anderson, a Sonoma County Water Agency spokesman.
An estimated 40,000 to 60,000 gallons spilled into
That's a small fraction of the 2.7 million gallons released into
Water quality officials said sewer overflows have been an ongoing issue, and county officials said they are working to upgrade the sewer system in the valley.
County officials couldn't say how large of a health or environmental risk the overflow posed.
The pressure in the pipes lifted manhole covers in three areas, where a mixture of rainwater and sewage flowed into the street,
The sewage then flowed into Water Agency storm drains that flow into
"This is a problem we have been having with the old sewage collection system,"
The
The infrastructure was built in 1955, said Cordel Stillman, the agency's capital projects manager.
To deal with the problem, the agency has a project under way to replace the main sewage transmission pipe, and at some point in the future will replace the lines serving the main, Stillman said.
"The collection system is overwhelmed," Stillman said. "The system work we are doing will help."
The problems occurred at
The spills were reported to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Board.
Bill Johnson, a board enforcement officer, said such spills are an issue throughout the Bay Area.
He said the Sonoma County Water Agency has three days to submit a report. The overflows are subject to sanctions, but the Water Agency has not been penalized in the past.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080205/NEWS/802050317/1033/NEWS01
REGULATION:
Vista,
VISTA -- City officials in Vista and
Under the proposed settlement, released Monday for public review, the cities would pay $200,000 to the state Water Resources Control board and $500,000 to wildlife agencies for local environmental improvements.
Last year, water quality regulators proposed a $1.1 million fine, but the settlement slashes $395,000 of that liability on the condition that the cities upgrade the sewer main that suffered the leak.
"I think there are some win-wins here,"
The settlement follows months of negotiations between staff members at the various agencies. However, it is subject to the regional water board's approval on March 12.
The threat of a massive fine has been hanging over
Analysts determined that the break was caused by corrosive soil eating through the jointly owned sewer main, which slices through
For a spill of that size, the law allows a maximum fine of $73 million.
"If we have more sewage spills, they're not going to be nice to us here in
Even if the water board approves the settlement,
The regional water board has not determined if a fine will be levied for that incident, Becker said. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/02/05/news/inland/vista/2_04_092_4_08.txt
WASTEWATER ISSUES:
City gets sewer deadline extended
Auburn Journal – 2/4/08
By Jenna Nielsen, staff writer
Auburn city leaders no longer have to worry about meeting wastewater-improvement deadlines by December 2009.
But now they must deal with the reality of making required upgrades within a year. And what kind of increases sewer ratepayers may see if the city decides to connect to a regional sewer line in
The city could have faced fines upward of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, if guidelines such as reducing nitrogen, metals and pesticide levels, were not met.
In a decision reached Friday, the board decided to grant the city an extension until 2010 to reach compliance by making on-site improvements and until 2013 if it decides to connect to the regional pipeline.
"If we hadn't gotten the extension, we would have been required to proceed with our on-site improvements and would have opted out of the regional project, but with the extension we still have options," Jack Warren, city public works director said Monday. "Now that we have the option, we need to report to the regional board in June with a decision."
The City Council voted last fall to stop design work on its existing treatment plant and move toward connecting to the
Officials estimate connecting to
City sewer fees were increased last June to compensate for on-site improvements. Fees would need to be increased if the city decides to go regional, but by how much is being determined by city staff and consultants right now.
Councilman Bob Snyder, who is also chairman of the Placer Nevada Wastewater Authority, said he is happy the city has a choice.
"Without the cooperation of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, we would have been dead in the water," Snyder said. "It would have been impossible to continue thinking about this option for the city and the region. The discussion would be over. We would be spending money on a design for this plant here."
Snyder said the city would be in a difficult position had the extension not been granted.
"It would have been a very difficult political choice to go to war with the Regional Water Quality Control Board," Snyder said. "We would have had to say (forget about) the permit, we will pay the fines because we believe this is the better option. And I think it would have been hard to get three city councilmembers to take that risk. Instead, we talked them into working with us. They saw the desirability of keeping the option open, which I think is good for us, good for them and good for the environment. And hopefully it will be good for the ratepayers."
"It takes a long time to get to the answers you need,"
We will have a pretty good estimate for the cost of the pipeline and possible sewer rate increases, but the environmental process will still take us a year to a year and a half."
"We could take this to the City Council and they could decide to go regional and then at the end of the environmental process, something could happen,"
"Basically, one central location is better than several little ones," Landau told the Journal in a previous interview. "More expertise in design and operation will be available than you can afford for a small wastewater treatment plant."
The water would also be discharged onto the valley floor, clean enough to be reused for irrigation and landscaping and it's better for the environment, said John Pedri, director of public works for the city of
Treated wastewater is currently discharged into the Auburn Ravine Creek.
"The (
Councilman Mike Holmes, who has been weary of stopping on-site improvements to invest fully in the regional option, said in spite of the water quality board's extension, his concerns remain. "I am still a little nervous that we will be able to meet our commitments, even with the extension," Holmes said Monday. "Not only are we facing this deadline but we have another concern with the general downturn in the property market and so forth. We have to worry about operational costs associated with the wastewater plant and the city of
The city is going to have to come up with some creative ways to see through "this fiscal problem" that's looming, Holmes said.
"My intuition tells me to proceed with caution,' Holmes said. "I believe the regional plant is the ultimate way to go.
But I think how we get there offers a number of challenges." #
http://www.auburnjournal.com/articles/2008/02/05/news/top_stories/03sewerextension5.txt?pg=3
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