Feb 6, 2008 1:17 pm US/Pacific
State Wants Probe Of Water Agency In Sewage Spill
(BCN)
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Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin plant which leaked partially treated sewage.
CBS
The California Environmental Protection Agency has requested an independent review of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board following spills of more than 5 million gallons of partially treated sewage into Marin County's Richardson Bay.
Two recent spills occurred at the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin. The first, a 2.45 million-gallon spill, took place Jan. 25 and the second, a spill of 2.7 million gallons, occurred six days later.
Although the sewerage agency reported the initial spill to the Regional Water Board on Jan. 26, the report included an incorrect date and did not provide an estimate of the volume of sewage that spilled, according to the Regional Water Board. The error was not detected by the Regional Water Board until Tuesday when it announced the spill.
"Although it appears that the Sewerage Agency failed in its responsibility to report the original incident as required by state law, the Regional Board staff apparently missed at least two opportunities to investigate the matter," state EPA Secretary Linda Adams wrote in a letter to Regional Water Board Executive Officer Bruce Wolfe.
"I respectfully request that you immediately authorize a thorough and independent investigation of the Regional Board's standard operating procedures concerning emergencies of this nature," the letter read.
Lila Tang, of the Regional Water Board, said that the board welcomes an independent review and is always looking for ways to improve operations.
Tang said that the Regional Water Board is conducting its own investigation in to the Sewerage Agency's failures. The Sewerage Agency did not notify the state Office of Emergency Services of the first spill, which is required by law with a maximum penalty of a $20,000 fine and one year in jail, according to Tang.
"This revelation that there was a second significant spill in Marin during the course of one week is alarming," Wolfe said in a prepared statement. "We will, of course, investigate the Sewerage Agency's failures, and at the same time we will ask for an independent review."
(© 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 This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.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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