Some say county Department of Health has been “asleep at the wheel” in regard to reporting protocols for sewage spills.
By Melonie Magruder / Special to The Malibu Times
Whether a major event like that of the Manhattan Beach spill in January of last year, which released two million gallons of untreated sewage into Santa Monica Bay, or the smaller December incident in Malibu, when less than 100 gallons of wastewater overflowed into Malibu Lagoon due to a blocked commercial grease interceptor for a local restaurant, the parties responsible for the breach are obligated to report spills to Los Angeles County Health authorities within 24 hours.
However, as revealed in an audit released last week by Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe’s office detailing the county’s broken system for reporting raw sewage spills, they are not always reported within the required time frame.
Of 208 major events in the past five years, the audit found that less than 20 were on record for the county.
Knabe’s audit revealed that large spills frequently go unreported or are reported long after beachgoers have been exposed to contaminated waters, raising the specter of potentially devastating health issues.
Many such spills affect local beaches. Most recently, Will Rogers Beach was closed due to a raw sewage spill into Santa Monica Canyon Creek on Jan. 19, and was reopened Jan. 22.
Rachel Tyree, public information officer for the L.A. County Department of Public Health, said the county is already working to improve notification procedures.
“Part of the problem is that there are multiple jurisdictions in L.A. County, with different city and state agencies, and they all have different reporting protocols,” she said.
Tracey Egoscue, executive director of Santa Monica Baykeeper, said, “That just means the Department of Health is asleep at the wheel. Different protocols? We are talking about the health of millions of residents and visitors!”
Egoscue said she was “shocked” to see this issue finally in print.
“I’m happy that they initiated this audit, because most large spills simply go unreported.”
Egoscue said she believes this is because permit holders, who are responsible for the spills, simply quietly contain the problem, rather than report the breach to authorities and face financial liability.
“Unless you have a massive spill like the Manhattan Beach spill, there just is no accountability,” she said.
The Los Angeles County Sanitation District was fined $4.6 million (a penalty recently reduced to $2.5 million) for five years of “sanitary indiscretions,” including the Manhattan Beach spill.
The Baykeeper director also pointed out that the audit only detailed sewage spills-more than 11 million gallons in the last five years-that ended up dumping into Santa Monica Bay watersheds.
“Spills that polluted Long Beach or the Los Angeles River Basin were not included in the overview of the audit,” she said.
Tyree said the goal of the county health department is to apply rigorous enforcement of reporting protocols so “the county is informed within two hours of a spill so that immediate steps can be taken to close beaches and contain the problem.”
Acting County Director of Public Health Dr. Jonathan Fielding was expected to address the meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning this week, with recommendations for defining mandatory time frames for reporting a spill and plans to work with sewer system operators to clarify who should be contacted in the event a spill happens.
Mark Gold, executive director of the environmental watchdog group Heal the Bay, has said that spills should be reported to lifeguards, health officials, sanitation workers and the state within two hours. Yet both Gold and Egoscue said their agencies receive more information on spills than the county.
Egoscue said that a great deal of sewage spills go unreported “under cover of darkness.” She said she herself witnessed an incident with a local home that had a sewage spill.
“A private company showed up to pump out the spill and they dumped it into a storm drain,” she said.
Egoscue immediately reported the infraction to the local police.
Public Health Chief Fielding has said, “Our first priority is the health and safety of L.A. County residents and visitors to our area beaches.”
To enforce this precedence, he said, a comprehensive system of reporting must be instituted that enforces permits and immediately contains sewage breaches.
“The law and permitting process require that you report on yourself in the event of a sewage spill,” Egoscue emphasized. “And if everyone knew the Department of Health would come down on you right away, things would start to change. Reporting must be made uniform and immediate.”