[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATER QUALITY - 2/11/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

February 11, 2008

 

4. Water Quality

 

SEWAGE SPILLS:

Burlingame being sued over sewage - San Francisco Chronicle

 

PLANT OF THE YEAR AWARD:

Water control officials get awards for performance - Ventura County Star

 

 

SEWAGE SPILLS:

Burlingame being sued over sewage

San Francisco Chronicle – 2/11/08

By Marisa Lagos, staff writer

 

An environmental group is filing suit against the city of Burlingame today, charging that the city's antiquated sewer system frequently spills raw sewage onto city streets and that its treatment plant illegally discharged more than 10 million gallons of wastewater into the bay over the past 16 years.

 

The suit by the nonprofit Baykeeper seeks to force the city to invest more aggressively in fixing its sewer pipes and to stop Burlingame from illegally discharging water near Coyote Point, said Program Director Sejal Choski.

 

In recent weeks, two large sewage spills in Marin County spewed more than 5 million gallons of raw and partially treated sewage into sensitive tidal marshlands and Richardson Bay. Both spills, on Jan. 25 and 31, occurred after heavy rains dumped a great deal of water into the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin in Mill Valley, and public notification about the spills was delayed by 11 days in the first case and 20 hours in the second.

 

The Marin County spills and the delayed response have renewed public attention on sewage problems in the Bay Area, prompting Baykeeper to accompany the lawsuit with a new campaign, Sick of Sewage. That initiative is being launched today and will educate Bay Area residents on how to decrease their sewage loads during large storms, which regularly tax wastewater systems. Choski said it will also include a number of investigations into Bay Area sewage agencies with a history of spills, including the Marin facility.

 

"The sewage problem in the Bay Area is not a one-time occurrence by Southern Marin. It's something that happens quite frequently throughout the Bay Area in everyone's backyards," she said. "(We want) regulatory agencies to realize if they don't take aggressive action, Baykeeper has in the past and is ready to keep doing so."

 

Raw or partially treated sewage contains bacteria, viruses, parasites and dangerous chemicals, and can cause a variety of illnesses in people and animals exposed to the wastewater. On Friday, the Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary announced a spike in dead birds found near the center in Tiburon, a possible impact of the sewage spills.

 

Choski said Baykeeper has been investigating wastewater issues for a decade and filed a claim with the city of Burlingame in October as a precursor to the lawsuit. The suit, set to be filed in federal court in San Francisco today, names the city of Burlingame, as well as Veolia Water North America, the company contracted to run the city's wastewater treatment plant.

 

The lawsuit says the city has failed to maintain its sewer system, resulting in frequent overflows onto city streets and private properties that Burlingame does not always report to the regional water board. The nonprofit also accuses the city of, during heavy rains, discharging wastewater - which includes "unacceptably high amounts of human waste, bacteria and chemicals" - into the bay through an illegal pipeline just north of Coyote Point.

 

The lawsuit says the alleged discharge has totaled more than 10 million gallons since 2002 and is particularly problematic because it is in "very shallow water and receives virtually no dilution."

 

The overflows and discharges violate federal law as well as the city's permits, according to the lawsuit, and Baykeeper is seeking penalties that would be used for bay restoration projects, Choski said.

 

Burlingame's sewer system, like many in the Bay Area, is in need of upgrading, and the City Council approved a $100 million improvement plan several years ago. City officials did not return calls seeking comment Friday. In October, however, Burlingame public works Director Syed Murtuza told The Chronicle that the city is spending an average of $3.7 million a year on those improvements but cannot do them all at once. Murtuza also said he was unaware of an illegal pipeline near Coyote Point.

 

Choski said Baykeeper does not think the city has adequately prioritized how it is spending that money.

 

"They're putting money into the system, but we don't necessarily think it's enough or that it's funding the right projects," she said.

 

The patchwork of sewage agencies in the nine-county Bay Area region is regulated by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which is investigating the Marin County spills. Additionally, the state Environmental Protection Agency and the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin are hiring independent investigators to conduct probes. State Sen. Carol Migden, D-San Francisco, has announced she will look into the incident as well.

 

Authorities have conducted regular testing at beaches and streams near the Mill Valley plant since the Jan. 31 spill.

 

Nearly all the locations were deemed safe last week for recreational water contact and sport fishing, although samples in the latest test, Wednesday on the Tiburon waterfront near San Rafael Avenue, slightly exceeded contamination standards set by the state. The area will be tested again today.  #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/11/MN5KUV4I6.DTL

 

 

PLANT OF THE YEAR AWARD:

Water control officials get awards for performance

Ventura County Star – 2/10/08

 

Simi Valley's water quality control plant won the 2007 Plant of the Year award, and several city staff members were recognized at a recent California Water Environment Association awards ceremony for the tri-counties region.

 

The annual award was presented to city staff members in Santa Barbara last month.

 

The Plant of the Year award is given to the wastewater system operator most proficient in wastewater treatment plant management, including compliance with regulatory permits, financial management and cost-effectiveness, and overall treatment plant and sewer system operation.

 

Richard Brewer, environmental compliance inspector, won the pretreatment prevention person of the year award.

 

Kevin Gieschen, environmental compliance program coordinator, won the supervisor of the year award. Barbara Santos, laboratory supervisor, won the president's recognition award.

 

The Plant of the Year award qualifies the city to enter the statewide competition, with the winner to be announced at the annual CWEA conference in Sacramento in April. #

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/feb/10/no-headline---nb1bottomfeeders10-ec/

####