Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
February 7, 2008
4. Water Quality
EPA chief seeks probe of Marin sewage spills
San Francisco Chronicle – 2/7/08
By Marisa Lagos, staff writer
The state's top environmental official has called for an independent investigation of the agency that regulates Bay Area water pollution after the botched response by
In a letter, Linda Adams, secretary of the state Environmental Protection Agency, faults the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board for not immediately investigating a decision to release 2.5 million gallons of untreated sewage into
It took the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin several days to tell the water board the extent of the Jan. 25 incident.
Emergency officials never were told about it. And on Jan. 31, it took officials about 20 hours to notify the public of a 2.7 million-gallon spill of treated and untreated sewage.
Both spills posed health risks to people using the bay, officials said. Raw sewage contains illness-causing bacteria, viruses, parasites and chemicals.
State law requires the sewage-treatment plant to notify emergency officials of any dangerous spill as soon as possible and to tell the water board within 25 hours.
Sewage plant officials did not return calls seeking comment.
In a letter to the water board dated Tuesday, Adams said the
She also blamed the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Board for failing to immediately investigate the incident.
"This is, in my opinion, a disservice to the citizens of the Bay Area and, therefore, unacceptable,"
Bruce Wolfe, executive director of the Regional Water Quality Board, said he looks forward to the investigation, which not only will review his agency's procedures but also will look at how sewage plants around the region notify the public in the case of potential contamination.
State Sen. Carol Migden, D-San Francisco, said this week that she would request a legislative investigation into the incident.
"We want to look both at the notification procedures from wastewater plants in general and the procedures at our office," Wolfe said. "Obviously, the plants have a requirement in their permits that anybody causing a spill make notifications, but if they are not going to be diligent on doing that, then we need to fill the gaps."
The spills on Jan. 25 and Jan. 31 came from the Marin sewerage agency's facility and eventually flowed through a tidal marsh into
In the first instance, a worker intentionally released 2.5 million gallons of untreated sewage from an overflow pond at the treatment plant because recent storms had inundated the facility with too much water, Wolfe said. The plant never informed emergency officials of the spill and failed to tell the Regional Water Quality Board of its extent until officials sent a letter on Jan. 28. The sewage from that spill had been screened for solids but had not been biologically treated or chlorinated for disinfection, officials said.
On Jan. 31, heavy rains again overwhelmed the facility, and a blend of treated and untreated sewage overflowed from the plant after all the workers had left. The spill persisted for three hours until a plant worker monitoring operations from home noticed the problem. Plant officials told state emergency workers and the regional water board of the spill that evening, but the public and many local officials weren't informed until the next day.
The public was not informed of the Jan. 25 spill until Tuesday - 11 days after the deliberate discharge.
A staff member at the water board was sent an e-mail about the spill on Jan. 26, but the plant misstated the date of the incident and didn't provide an estimate of the spill's size. The staff member received an updated report on Jan. 30 but didn't immediately follow up because she believed that the spill had occurred weeks before.
Wolfe characterized the spills as major and said officials at the plant - which has been penalized for minor violations three times since 2001 - have been cooperative.
In addition to the independent review, Wolfe said, water quality board officials will conduct their own investigation into the spills and most likely will assess fines.
"Five million gallons is on the large side and ... we do view it as a violation of the plant's permit," Wolfe said. "The big problem in all of this is that too much water flows into the system when it rains, and it overflows the system ... it's clear that further work needs to be done to upgrade the collection system."
The second spill led
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/07/MNF6UTBDH.DTL&hw=water&sn=008&sc=1000
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