Laguna Moves to Curb Sewage Spills : Council Seeks Sensors After Latest Leak

In reaction to a 9,000-gallon spill of raw sewage Tuesday, the seventh such incident this year, the Laguna Beach City Council has launched efforts to develop a sophisticated monitoring system for the city’s sewage pumping stations, City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said Wednesday.

The council Tuesday night approved a plan to negotiate with an electrical contractor to devise a system of sensors to detect problems such as the power failure that resulted in the spill at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Frank said.

Meanwhile, a 2,000-foot stretch of water off Anita Street remained closed to swimmers Wednesday, as Orange County Health Care Agency officials began taking water samples to determine the level of contamination on the beach and offshore.

Public Health Concern

“Our main concern is with public health,” said Michael Wehner, county water quality program chief.

Bacteria in the water could cause gastrointestinal problems if ingested, he said.

When combined with soil bacteria and other runoff from this week’s heavy rainfall, the spill could pose an increased health threat.

Wehner said the shoreline 1,000 feet north and south of the Anita Street pump station will probably remain closed at least through Friday. But he added that such contamination can dissipate quickly in open coastal waters.

“If the spill were in an estuary, we would be much more concerned,” he said.

Tuesday’s incident was one of this year’s smaller spills in Laguna. Most of them have resulted from broken sewer pipes or electrical failures.

Soaked Power Line Shorted

The Anita Street spill was caused by a rain-soaked power line that shorted out about 10 a.m., cutting power to the pump station and allowing raw effluent to flow into the ocean.

Frank said the station was operating fine as of an 8:15 a.m. inspection, but at 9:45 a.m. the electrical line to the station began arcing. He said about 15 minutes passed before the pump’s wells began to overflow. City officials brought in a portable generator and had the pumps operating again by 11:30 a.m.

The proposed sensor system would constantly check the heat of the pumps, the amount of sewage vapors in the system and the amount of sewage in the wet wells, Frank said. It would also alert operators to vandalism or security problems at pump stations.

No contractors have been named yet, Frank said, but a bid should be ready to present to the council at its Oct. 3 meeting. The city would pay a private contractor the cost, plus a predetermined profit margin.

‘Emergency Situation’

Under normal circumstances, the city would consider several bids at once. But Frank said Wednesday, “We don’t have time, this is an emergency situation.”

According to a Southern California Edison spokesman, the main problem with the pumping stations is that the pumps are not protected against power failures.

“Interruptions (in electricity) are normal,” said Steve Sullivan, so the city’s pumping station wells need more capacity, or the city needs to install a better backup generator system.

But Frank said there is “no

problem with the pumps” themselves. He noted that the failures have all been from interruption of power to the stations, not to bad pumps or electrical problems within the stations.

The city’s two biggest pump stations have backup generators, but none were installed in smaller ones because it is “not cost-effective,” Frank said.

Portable Generator

For power outages at small stations such as Anita Street, the city sends a portable generator by trailer.

“The portable generator was a good investment,” Edison’s Sullivan said, because a crew set up the generator just half an hour after the shutdown was reported.

The problem would have been corrected earlier, but no residents in the area had a power outage, Frank said, so no one was aware of the pump failure. Neighbors usually report that their power is out, so utility officials know the power to a nearby pump station is also out.

City officials hope that the proposed sensors might alert sewer workers to problems in time to prevent some spills but would be primarily designed to provide an early warning of a spill so the portable generators can be moved to the scene quickly enough to minimize the leak.

900,000-Gallon Spill

Stretches of shore off Laguna Beach have been closed seven times in 1989 because of sewage spills, the biggest being a 900,000-gallon spill at Aliso Beach on June 22, when a South Coast Water District line burst.

Most recently, another power line problem on Sept. 5 shut down the Brooks Street pumping station, causing 500 gallons of sewage to flow into the ocean.

Elizabeth Brown, president of Laguna Greenbelt Inc., characterized the sewage spills as more of an occasional nuisance than a chronic problem in Laguna Beach.

“The city is making an effort to stop” the leaks, Brown said. “Everybody thinks it’s unfortunate.”

YEAR OF THE LEAK Sept. 19: A spill of 9,000 gallons closes a 2,000-foot stretch of shore at Anita Street. A short in a rain-soaked utility line cuts electricity to pump.

Sept. 5: A short in a power line causes a 500-gallon spill at a pump station near Brooks Street, closing 500 feet of shoreline.

July 23: A power outage causes pump failures at eight locations, resulting in a 12,000-gallon spill at Cleo Street, a spill of 500 gallons at Irvine Cove, a 10-gallon spill at McKnight Drive and the closure of Main Beach.

June 22: A 900,000-gallon spill from broken sewer pipe closes Aliso Beach.

March: A 100,000-gallon spill from a ruptured sewer pipe closes Aliso Beach.

January: A broken sewer pipe results in a spill of 175,000 gallons at Aliso Beach. Another spill--60,000 gallon--closes one mile of beach after construction equipment breaks a sewer pipe.