City's spills may be costly
Redding had three incidents in four months
Dylan Darling
The Record Searchlight
02/09/2011
A problem with a pump at the city of Redding’s Stillwater Wastewater Treatment Plant late last month caused nearly 75,000 gallons of water with 100 times more than the allowable amount of chlorine to pour into the Sacramento River.
“The chlorine levels were high enough that they could be toxic to fish,” said Robert Crandall, assistant executive officer for the state’s Regional Water Quality Board’s office in Redding.
Luckily, the 45-minute spill didn’t appear to kill any fish, he said. The water quality board is considering fining the city for the spill, though. The fine could be about $10,000.
The spill was the city’s third in four months. Although the other spills were from its sewage system and were much smaller, Crandall said the water quality board is looking at those spills as it weighs the possible fine.
“I’m concerned about potential carelessness,” Crandall said.
But differences in the types of spills show that there isn’t a recurring problem, said Redding public works Director Brian Crane.
“They are completely different types of spills,” Crane said.
Although a faulty pump caused the spill at Stillwater, the other spills resulted from blockages
combined with high inflow caused by heavy rains, according to water quality board reports.
The Jan. 23 spill at Stillwater, which is off Airport Road near Anderson, let 72,300 gallons of chlorine-rich treated wastewater into the Sacramento River. The Oct. 24 spill at 2700 South Market St. sent 19,000 gallons of sewage to Linden Creek. The Dec. 11 spill between Waldon and California streets near Sonoma Street put 450 gallons of sewage into Calaboose Creek. Linden and Calaboose creeks run into the Sacramento River.
Crane said the city didn’t put out public announcements about the spills when they occurred because tests downstream didn’t show dangerous levels of pollution.
“There was no hazard to the environment or to people,” Crane said.
The city is planning changes at Stillwater and stepped up its inspection schedule about a year ago, which could lower the likelihood of more spills, said Dennis McBride, the city’s wastewater utility manager.
A $20 million expansion and upgrade project at Stillwater is set to go out to bid this spring, he said. The city added a second two-person sewer line inspection crew last year, which will cut the time between inspections on the city’s 430 miles of sewer line from four years to two years, and the crews are using updated equipment, he said.
