Sewage Spill Creates Stench as a Lake of Waste Collects : Emergency: Workers build a dam in Westminster flood control channel to contain the 15,000-gallon overflow.

More than 15,000 gallons of raw sewage escaped from a sewer main Thursday, creating a monstrous stench and prompting work crews to build a dam in a nearby flood control channel after the effluent spilled into a storm drain.

Despite the smell and possible health risk, no evacuations were ordered, officials at the scene said.

Battalion Chief Allan R. White of the Westminster Fire Department said the sewage spill was discovered about 6 a.m. after an 8-inch sewer line became stopped up behind the city’s Little Saigon business district on Bishop Place at Belgrade Street in front of McGarvin Intermediate School.

Pressure caused the untreated sewage to overflow from a manhole, creating a 3-inch-deep lake near an apartment complex on Bishop east of Belgrade that flooded “a parking lot, sidewalks and flower beds,” White said.

The cause of the blockage was unknown, but White said that a similar situation occurred some months ago that was caused by an accumulation of grease.

“Usually, these blockages are caused by heavy debris or large balls of grease. We have a lot of restaurants in the area here,” White said.

Because the sewage spill posed a possible health risk, fire officials immediately enacted an Orange County hazardous-waste response plan, which called for emergency notification of county health, hazardous-waste, pollution, public works and water quality agencies. The U.S. Coast Guard was also notified.

Oddly, no residents called authorities about the spill, White said.

“We never got a call on this. We heard about it when a medic unit responded to a call and came by this area, then called us,” White said.

White said that evacuation of the neighborhood was considered but later rejected after county health officials determined the health risk was “not that high.”

However, a heavy odor hung in the air and was blown southwest toward Huntington Beach by strong afternoon winds.

“When we first got here, the smell was really bad and you had to watch where you stood,” White said.

Firefighters who arrived first at scene said the stench “was terrible,” as they negotiated their way through the sewage.

Officials from the Midway City Sanitary District, operators of the sewer system, were called in as part of the cleanup effort, White said.

The district ordered a truck with a pump to the scene and also dispatched several truckloads of rock and sand to the Orange County flood control channel to hurriedly construct a containment dam.

Despite containment efforts, White said that a small amount of sewage escaped into a flood control channel that leads to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.

“But health officials said the sewage that did escape was negligible and posed no health threat,” White said.

Bishop Place was closed one block from Belgrade to Brookhurst Street by police to allow only emergency vehicles into the cleanup area.

Cleanup efforts lasted from 8:30 a.m. to about 4 p.m.