CLEARLAKE — Sewage heavily diluted by rainwater ran down the street in Clearlake during the recent series of storms, flowing into ditches, steams and eventually Clear Lake.
“It was pretty much a flash flood on Old Highway 53 and Meadowbrook,” said Supervisor Jeff Smith, who represents the Clearlake district.
The Southeast Regional Wastewater Collection System has been overcapacity, causing Highlands Harbor area spills from large amounts of rainfall for years, Smith said. The system collects and treats sewage from Pirates Cove north of Clearlake to Lower Lake. The Lake County Board of Supervisors addressed the issue during its Tuesday meeting.
Lake County Special Districts is negotiating an agreement with the Clearlake Redevelopment Agency to pay for, design and construct a bypass sewage line to increase capacity and prevent spills, said Dale Neiman, Clearlake city administrator. Neiman said it makes sense to improve the sewer system along with water, drainage and roads for possible development of the airport property into a Lowe”s.
“The extension has to go to the treatment plant, it has to happen whether there”s development at the airport property or not,” Smith said. “We have to get this done.”
Neiman said the spills pose a health and environmental risk.
The county and city may split the $5 million cost for the bypass project that would free up 3,000 sewer connections in Clearlake, Neiman said.
Neiman thinks ratepayers would likely pay their fair share of the cost along with new development, he said.
Special Districts administrator Mark Dellinger said he expects to have new development pay for about 20 percent of the project. The district may also consider raising ratepayer fees by about 20 percent. Funding issues and a project contract would go before the Board of Supervisors for review.
“The project will not only help the Highland Harbor area, it would benefit all of the system and all of the ratepayers,” Dellinger said.
In order to avoid fines from the Regional Water Quality Control Board for spills, Special Districts pumped about 576,000 gallons of water out of the southeast system during the end-of-January storms, Dellinger said.
An Olympic-size swimming pool holds about 660,000 gallons of water.
It cost about $30,000 countywide to haul the sewage and rainwater during the recent storm, Dellinger said.
Dellinger estimated Special Districts spent about $400,000 to $500,000 in septic haulers during the past seven years while he has been in office and more than $2 million in improvement projects in Highlands Harbor area in more than 10 years, he said.
If the bypass project is constructed, Dellinger said he”s relatively confident the southeast system won”t need hauling.
Based on sewage flow and the amount of rain, Dellinger thinks most of the spilling during the storms was caused by illegal hookups of roof gutter downspouts and yard drains to the sewer, he said.
One gutter from a 2,000-square-foot house connected to the sewer system equals the amount of sewage created by 50 single-family dwelling units, Dellinger said.
“When people see their yards filling up with water they try to find a way to drain it,” Dellinger said.
However the hookups are illegal and cause sewage spills, Dellinger said.
Rainwater enters the sewage system from yard and patio drains, roof gutter downspouts, uncapped clean-outs, pond or pool overflow drains, footing drains and cross-connections with storm drains. Special Districts recommends people inspect their drains to make sure they aren”t connected with the sewer system. Rainwater needs to be directed onto lawns or the storm drain system.
“If we wouldn”t have hauled 500,000 gallons of sewage and rainwater, it would have spilled into the creeks and Anderson Marsh,” Smith said.
Contact Katy Sweeny at kdsweeny@gmail.com or call her directly at 263-5636, ext. 37.
