CLEARLAKE — A bird into a high power line lead Friday night started a fire and caused a power outage that resulted in a sewer spill in Clearlake. About 70 gallons of sewage spilled from two manholes on Lakeshore Drive.
Northshore Fire Protection District and CALFIRE rendered wildland response at approximately 8:25 p.m. on the Clearlake Oaks side of Sulphur Bank Drive. The last unit cleared the scene around 10:30 p.m. and less than a half acre burned.
According to Special Districts Director Mark Dellinger, the power outage affected a significant portion of the sewer system in the northwest area of Clearlake creating control system problems at several pump stations. “The result was a sewer backup on Lakeshore Drive and sewage discharge from two manholes,” he said. “The total spill volume was 70 gallons and it was contained and removed.”
According to Dellinger, the spill was cleaned up by 3 a.m. Saturday morning. He said no sewage flowed into Clear Lake.
As directed by Lake County Environmental Health, the sanitation district disinfection operations and posted notifications in the areas of the two manhole discharge locations. Advisory signs were removed on Tuesday afternoon.
Dellinger said that spill notification was sent to the state on Saturday with a 24 hour follow up report sent on Sunday.
