Feb 4, 2008 9:20 pm US/Pacific
Report On Bay Sewage Spill Expected Soon
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
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Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin sewage plant in Mill Valley.
CBS
The treatment plant manager of the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin said Monday afternoon he is preparing a report about the circumstances that led to the release of 2.7 million gallons of partially treated sewage and storm water into Richardson Bay Thursday night.
Steven Danehy reiterated the sequence of events that led to the spill he attributed to "operational judgment" by a staff member.
Danehy said four pumps at the plant at 450 Sycamore Ave. should have been operating instead of two Thursday, causing partially treated sewage and storm water to backup and overflow into a storm drain in the parking lot and spill into Corte Madera Creek leading to Richardson Bay around 4:30 p.m.
A private alarm service company that was to call an on-call plant operator left a message instead when the operator didn't answer, Danehy said. An operator checking on the plant on his home computer spotted the problem at 8 p.m. and corrected it at the plant by 8:30 p.m., Danehy said.
"We started notification to Fish and Game and OES at 9:45 or 10 p.m.," Danehy said.
He said the problem at the plant was posted on his agency's Web site and emergency notification also was made to the state and county authorities.
"We were back to normal Thursday evening," Danehy said. The plant was cleaned and drained Friday, he said.
"It is an embarrassment. We're going to take another hard look at all out procedures," Danehy said.
Lila Tang, manager of wastewater permits with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, said the sewerage agency has five business days to complete its report of the incident.
"We'll do an investigation to verify the cause and get the results from the discharge samples. Our process is long," Tang said Monday afternoon.
Testing of water samples taken from the bay Saturday indicated reduced levels from Friday of bacterial contamination at all testing sites, The Marin County Public Health Department said Sunday. All the samples are within the state fecal coliform standard for water contact recreation but several locations exceeded the standard for enterococcus bacteria, the department said.
The highest levels of total coliform and E coli were found Friday and Saturday at Bay Front Office Park.
Results from tests Sunday were to be released Monday afternoon. Recommendations to avoid swimming, recreational water use and sport fishing will remain in effect pending additional sampling and analysis during the week, the department said.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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