Sewage Spill Shuts Down Mission Bay
Spill Goes Undetected For Nine Days
All water-recreation areas on Mission Bay were declared off limits Thursday, in the wake of a sewage spill of at least 1.5 million gallons.
City officials believe wastewater has been spilling out of a manhole near Tecolote Canyon since Feb. 19, according to Richard Haas of the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health.
The untreated effluent flowed into Tecolote Creek (pictured, left), which empties into the eastern side of Mission Bay.
The San Diego Metropolitan Wastewater Department now has the overflow under control, Haas said.
No cause for the problem has been identified, and it was not immediately clear why it went undetected for so long.
Meanwhile, staffers at Hale Avenue Resource Recovery Facility in Escondido discovered another sewage spill on Tuesday, two days after it occurred, Haas said.
It happened Sunday night after a contractor worked on a pipeline at the plant and failed to re-attach a necessary piece of equipment, Haas said.
Until sanitation crews got the problem under control about three hours later, about 40,000 gallons of secondary-treated wastewater overflowed into a storm drain that empties into Escondido Creek.
That waterway feeds into San Elijo Lagoon and ultimately the ocean, 12 miles west of the plant.
Health officials posted signs warning of sewage contamination at the estuary's outlet and along Cardiff State Beach in Encinitas.
The advisories in Encinitas and Mission Bay will remain in effect until testing shows the water is safe again for recreational use.
The untreated effluent flowed into Tecolote Creek (pictured, left), which empties into the eastern side of Mission Bay.
The San Diego Metropolitan Wastewater Department now has the overflow under control, Haas said.
No cause for the problem has been identified, and it was not immediately clear why it went undetected for so long.
Meanwhile, staffers at Hale Avenue Resource Recovery Facility in Escondido discovered another sewage spill on Tuesday, two days after it occurred, Haas said.
It happened Sunday night after a contractor worked on a pipeline at the plant and failed to re-attach a necessary piece of equipment, Haas said.
Until sanitation crews got the problem under control about three hours later, about 40,000 gallons of secondary-treated wastewater overflowed into a storm drain that empties into Escondido Creek.
That waterway feeds into San Elijo Lagoon and ultimately the ocean, 12 miles west of the plant.
Health officials posted signs warning of sewage contamination at the estuary's outlet and along Cardiff State Beach in Encinitas.
The advisories in Encinitas and Mission Bay will remain in effect until testing shows the water is safe again for recreational use. Copyright 2002 by TheSanDiegoChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
