Trouble at the Pump Station

January 14, 2006. A holiday weekend and the surf in Los Angeles was stellar. But one of the pumping stations in the Manhattan Beach sewer system had failed. By 10 a.m. raw sewage was flowing directly onto the beach. For two years, the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, the owners and operators of the failed pump station, had been under an order from U.S. EPA to fix their outdated pump stations. The pump station that overflowed onto the beach was on the ‘attention’ list.

The day of the spill was chaotic to say the least. The pump station failed and quickly filled with raw sewage. Sewage began to flow into surrounding homes and onto the beach. The county responded to the spill by dispatching bulldozers to the beach to create a berm to prevent raw sewage from reaching the ocean. Eyewitnesses told Santa Monica Baykeeper that the berm was repeatedly breached and that the pond the bulldozers created on the beach filled and spilled at least twice. Raw sewage pooled on the sand and poured into Santa Monica Bay.

In all, 2.5 million gallons of raw sewage escaped from the sewage system. County pump trucks captured some of it. A State Regional Water Quality Control Board employee estimated the spill volume reaching the bay at 250,000 gallons. How much ultimately was spilled to the Santa Monica Bay is up for debate. For every gallon, the State Regional Board has the discretion to fine the county up to $10. Santa Monica Baykeeper will advocate that the county pay the maximum fine. There is no excuse for a spill of this magnitude, especially when the county knew the pump station was in need of repair.
Santa Monica Baykeeper, Tracy Egoscue was interviewed at the scene by ABC News (visit
www.smbaykeeper.org and click on Advocacy.)