Sewage spill pollutes Escondido park creek, lake

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer | Tuesday, January 10, 2006 11:37 PM PST ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- City crews were trying Tuesday to corral whatever sewage was still in a storm drain, a Kit Carson Park creek and Lake Hodges after a 4,500-gallon spill.

Officials said that although some of Monday's spill got into the lake, it wouldn't affect lake water ordinarily taken by two North County water districts and used for drinking.

It wasn't known yet whether Lake Hodges, at a depth of 111 feet and 89 percent full, would be open for recreation as usual today, said Kurt Kidman, spokesman for the San Diego Water Department.

"Our water quality lab is going to go up there, take samples and decide what to do next, depending on what we find," Kidman said.

Pat Thomas, Escondido's director of public works, said that city crews were monitoring the sewage contamination, and some of it did appear to have reached the lake south of Sunset Drive.

The Monday night spill was the first this year for Escondido's busy, aging sewage system. Last year, eight spills of 50 to 280,000 gallons were reported to environmental and other officials.

As of last week, fines against the city ---- which is working to improve the system ---- had reached almost $1.8 million.

Most of the fines were for a 2004 breakdown of Escondido's sewage treatment plant and rain-related discharges early last year of treated waste into Escondido Creek and the Pacific Ocean.

"The existing sewer treatment infrastructure in Escondido is overtaxed," Geoffrey Smith, executive director of the Escondido Creek Conservancy, said Tuesday. "It's operating at a high capacity all the time."

Authorities at first thought that a power failure at a sewer pump station started Monday's spill at 8 p.m. in the 2600 block of South Escondido Boulevard.

Thomas said that by Tuesday afternoon, it had been determined that there was no power failure. The problem had been traced to a sewage measuring device that didn't activate the pump when it should have, he said.

"The pump is now working properly," Thomas added.

The spill ended after 1 1/2 hours Monday night, when city crews restarted the pump station and recovered 500 gallons of the spill, according to the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health.

Authorities said that the remaining 4,000 gallons flowed into a storm drain and into a creek that runs through Kit Carson Park before draining into Lake Hodges.

"Compared to the size of the lake, 4,000 gallons isn't a large quantity," Thomas said. "Of course, we're going to take every precaution necessary."

Signs warning of sewage contamination were being posted at access points to the creek within Kit Carson Park, officials said. The State Department of Health Services, Office of Drinking Water, was notified.

The Santa Fe Irrigation District and the San Dieguito Water District draw drinking water from Lake Hodges that is treated before use. A Santa Fe Irrigation District spokesman couldn't be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon.

"We just quit taking water yesterday out of Lake Hodges," said Phil Cotton, the San Dieguito district's director of public works. "We're taking straight treated water now from the San Diego County Water Authority, just for the next 11 days."

By then, he said, the spill contamination should no longer affect the lake.

Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.