Sewage spill reporting protocols clarified

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- While the Orange County Grand Jury continues its

investigation into allegations that the city failed to properly report

massive sewer leaks beneath the Downtown area, city officials have been

hard at work revamping procedures for reporting such spills.

Assistant City Administrator Bill Workman said that over the last few

weeks, new measures have been put in place to ensure that sewage spills

can be accurately tracked, contained and cleaned.

“We’re scheduled to begin additional training for our crews this week

to arm them with the most updated knowledge in sewage leak control,”

Workman said. “Our Fire Department has always been on target in being

able to respond and report surface spills ... but for subsurface spills,

there’s been some concern over what [leaks] were and weren’t being

reported.”

Between Jan. 4 and Monday, the grand jury heard testimony from six

city employees, including City Administrator Ray Silver, Public Works

Director Robert Beardsley, Don Noble, the city’s maintenance manager, and

Jerry Dilks, a crew leader in the Public Works Department, to provide

information about the sewer breaks. The result of those testimonies is

undetermined, officials in the Orange County district attorney’s office

said Monday.

At issue are massive breaks in sewer lines running beneath Downtown

and Old Town Huntington Beach. The leaks were first spotted in 1996

during video camera surveys of the sewer system, and have since been

repaired by the city.

Officials at the California Regional Water Quality Control Board’s

Santa Ana office said they were not notified about the breaks four years

ago, and issued an order last month that the city find and clean any

remaining sewage, as well as present a plan on how to track bacteria, if

any, in the residue by Feb. 7.

Mark Adelson, an environmental specialist and chief of surveillance

and enforcement at the water board’s Santa Ana office, said he has

briefed the city on what the state agency’s expectations are concerning

leaky sewers.

“We’ve basically boiled it down to the five Cs: contain, control,

communicate, cleanup and calculate,” he said.

The first action in a sewer break is to contain the spilled sewage,

then work crews must control the source, Adelson said. A city should then

communicate with all various organizations and oversight agencies, like

the water board, with an interest in the sewer spill.

Finally, it is necessary for the city to clean and decontaminate any

areas affected by the spill, and calculate how much volume was not

contained through the city’s actions.

Water officials said the only statutory law requiring the reporting of

sewer leaks applies to spills of more than 1,000 gallons, though there is

an administrative law prohibiting any type of surface discharging. Also,

they added, all spills must be reported to the area’s local health

officer.

City officials have disputed the water board’s claim that more than

70,000 gallons of raw sewage a day spilled into the ground, stating there

is no true way to verify that number.

The city discussed the sewer leaks and reporting with the Orange

County Health Agency in August 1996, and again in 1999 as part of coastal

water pollution investigation meetings.

Workman said that most of the new reporting protocols put in place

deal with documenting the chain of command and accountability work crews

and leaders should go through to report future sewer breaks.

They also include additional training on how to fix broken waste water

pipes to preserve the health and safety of the public, while not

compromising that of the worker.