Raw Sewage Spill during Russian River Flood at Vacation Beach
On March 6th, as Chair of
“I am trying to find out who is in charge of the raw sewage cleanup and enforcing sanitary regulations. The flood mud at our house is so bad because of this raw sewage. It looked like it was so much more sewage flowing out than ever before and this keeps happening even when the river only goes slightly above flood stage.” In another email she told me that the manhole near her house started pouring out raw sewage on Tuesday afternoon (February 26th, about 1.5 days before peak flow late Wednesday, February 27th) and did not stop until the following Saturday afternoon (March 2nd), which comes to roughly four days of raw sewage flow. She described the mess as being oily and sludge-like and smelling like feces, and that it had happened many times before.
Initially, she had called various agencies and did not receive satisfactory responses. Each agency told her to call someone else. At my suggestion, she contacted Regional Water Board office on March 7th, as did I, and the staff person said he would get back to us, but did not. I saw him on March 19th at their office and he said he’s waiting until a 45-day report comes in about a month from now. He explained that we should not worry since there was so much water in the river, it would dilute the toxins.
To be fair, there were many crises going on at the time of the flood, but it would seem that a major raw sewage spill would be worthy of a notice to affected residents. In checking Regional Board files two weeks later (March 19th), we found nothing of the spill in the files. The Vacation Beach homeowner (with three young children) finally got hold of Water Agency staff (operators of the system), but they weren’t very helpful in terms of assuring her that the situation was safe for her and her family. They would not agree to clean her front yard and they took coliform samples rather than a full range of toxins. We recognize that conditions at the time were difficult, but staff at the various agencies exhibited little concern for providing meaningful assurances and help to the public.
This property owner’s main concern was getting her yard and the surrounding environment adequately tested for pollutants and having them thoroughly cleaned up, including her front yard. It concerned her that there was inadequate notice or warning about the spill as the only sign posted was a little one that forced the reader to walk in the sewage in order to read it. Furthermore, SCWA staff rerouted a discharge pipe to a neighbor’s property where it flooded his front yard. I got the impression that Water Agency personnel were not very helpful, made several serious mistakes, and may have been ill-equipped to deal with this emergency.
There is a dire need for a community emergency plan that deals with all aspects of flood and sewer failures. (Sewer failures with RRCSD often occur during floods of 40’ and more.) Raising houses doesn’t do much good if people are flushing toilets during high waters and aging pipes allow for infiltration and inflow. People need to be educated about limiting water use during high water situations, and full disclosure about risks should be mandatory. Was this event intentionally kept secret from the public?
Agencies should willingly help all those affected by this spill, including thorough cleanup of affected properties. An emergency alert system to warn people of floods and spills and other disasters is needed; education of the community should be provided for what to do in various scenarios, and a permanent remedy provided as soon as possible. The Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) is masterful at getting grants and loans for their water delivery system, but need to put the same effort into finding funds for west county wastewater projects.
There was a big spill at this same Vacation Beach site in 2014 (breakage of a 16” pipe and estimated spill of 100,000 gallons of raw sewage) for which they received a significant fine. About that time, SCWA promised to rebuild/replace one pump station (of the system’s 11 pump system) each year. So far, none have been replaced.
Regional Board files indicate that a new force main had been discussed over the last five years, but it would be very expensive. Ratepayers have some of the highest bills in the County, topping $1550 each year and with average increases of 5% per year. Then there is the likely addition of Monte Rio and Villa Grande to Guerneville’s system since major funding sources generally don’t allow financial loans and grants to individual homeowners for septic improvements if there is a local central sewer system nearby.