SLO to pay $57,130 fine after four sewage spills
43,000 gallons of waste were dumped in seperate incidences over three years
AnnMarie Cornejo and Cynthia Lambert
San Luis Obispo Tribune
10/19/2011
The city of San Luis Obispo will pay a $57,130 fine stemming from four separate sewage spills in the past three years, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board announced Tuesday.
Collectively, the spills dumped 43,000 gallons of sewage, of which 30,600 gallons entered local creeks.
The spill happened when a rubber joint on a bypass pipe failed, city Public Works Director Dwayne Chisam said Tuesday.
Report by the South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District says two errors led to raw sewage escaping during December rains
The State Water Resources Control Board has issued a notice of violation against a South County sanitation district for a December release of hundreds of thousands of gallons of raw sewage.
The notice requires the South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District to submit not only a technical report outlining the cause of the spill and the district’s response, but also detailed information about the agency by May 31. The notice goes beyond a standard violation by delving into the inner workings of the agency.
“We’re interested in the spill but also in their entire operation,” said water board spokesman Dave Clegern. Water board staff is trying to determine whether the sanitation district underreported the amount of sewage spilled in December, he said.
Paso Robles could face steeper fines and even a state order halting growth if the city does not complete a multimillion upgrade of its sewage treatment plant built in 1954.
“The plant is already 15 years beyond its useful life and is essentially polluting the Salinas River,” said Matt Thompson, the city’s wastewater manager.
The discharge of salts, nitrates, disinfection byproducts and other chemicals doesn’t meet state and federal water quality standards — and the city pays monthly fines for it.
The city has agreed to pay the penalty to settle allegations that it violated water quality laws by spilling sewage into local creeks, according to a news release from the agency.
The city will pay $34,565 of the fine to the water quality board and $22,565 toward watershed improvements on city-owned undeveloped land at Froom Ranch.
The money given to the board goes into a statewide fund used by water boards and local agencies to clean up emergency situations and spill sites where the board can’t determine who is responsible, said Harvey Packard, enforcement coordinator for the Central Coast water board.
The maximum fine the board could have levied against the city for the spills was $315,000.
The penalty will be paid from the city’s capital improvement account of its sewer fund — money collected from ratepayers.
The city does not have a contingency fund for possible fines, said Carrie Mattingly, utilities director.
“We don’t plan on these things happening,” Mattingly said. “In this case, some very unfortunate things happened all right after one another.”
The fine is in response to four spills: In September 2008, 3,000 gallons reached San Luis Obispo Creek; in February 2009, 30,000 gallons reached Orcutt Creek; in March 2009, 9,000 gallons were spilled into Old Garden Creek; and in January 2010, 1,000 gallons were spilled into Stenner Creek.
The largest of the spills happened when a corroded pipe at Orcutt Road and Lawnwood Drive caused 30,000 gallons of sewage to spill in February 2009.
The sewage went into Orcutt Creek, which eventually flowed into San Luis Obispo Creek. That pipe has since been replaced.
The water board and the city negotiated a settlement to resolve the violations, according to a news release.
The city has been responsible for 51 sewage spills totaling 107,000 gallons in the past five years, according to the regional water board.
The sewage spills ranged in volume from five to 40,000 gallons, and 30 of those spills entered surface waters. The majority of those spills were caused by root intrusion, but blockages from grease and debris and broken sewer lines were also at fault, according to the water board.
Shell Beach spill
Elsewhere in the county, signs warning people of a sewage spill in a Shell Beach neighborhood were removed Sunday evening, two days after an estimated 6,000 gallons of sewage were released into a storm drain that leads directly to the ocean.
The spill was reported to Pismo Beach city staff about 8:20 p.m. Friday after someone smelled sewage in the area of 96 Indio Drive, according to a news release from the county health agency.
