[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS -WATER QUALITY- 4/09/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

April 9, 2009

 

4. Water Quality –

 

$1.6 million fine for 2 Marin sewage spills

The San Francisco Chronicle – 4/9/09

By Henry K. Lee

 

A Marin County sewage agency has agreed to pay a $1.6 million fine for spilling more than 3 million gallons of sewage into Richardson Bay last year, officials said Wednesday.

 

The Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin in Mill Valley discharged 2.4 million gallons of untreated sewage Jan. 25, 2008, and a separate spill of 962,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater six days later.

 

In both cases, the sewage poured out during heavy rain into Richardson Bay's tidal marsh, where currents can carry pollutants into San Francisco Bay.

 

The agency will pay $800,000 to a state cleanup fund and another $800,000 to complete two environmental projects, said the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board.

 

One project involves replacing older, cracked pipes in the agency's collection system, at a cost of $600,000 over five years. The goal is to reduce the amount of storm water that reaches the wastewater treatment plant.

 

The sewage agency will spend $200,000 to help the Richardson Bay Audubon Center and Sanctuary restore 17-acre Aramburu Island, which consists of dredged material, excavation waste and construction debris. Over two years, workers will help improve the habitat for resident and migratory birds and marine mammals such as the harbor seal.

 

Sewer agency officials were not available for comment Wednesday. General Manager Stephen Danehy has said the first spill happened because a worker failed to set up enough pumps to handle all the water coming into the plant.

 

Brooke Langston, executive director of the Audubon Center, said the sewage agency was doing its part to atone for what happened. The work on Aramburu Island is especially appropriate, she said, because it received little attention from conservationists until November 2007, when oil-slicked birds ended up there after the container ship Cosco Busan hit the Bay Bridge.

 

"I don't think you can ever, in any case, make up directly for a wrong done, but the sewage agency has been really anxious to do right by this somehow," Langston said. "I think the Aramburu project will do loads for habitat and water quality in the Bay Area."#

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/08/BAJ016VARR.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

 

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