By Gary Walker

Los Angeles County has drastically improved how it reports sewage spills and accidents that can pollute the ocean, and one of the catalysts that prompted county officials to demand quicker reporting of these incidents was a 2006 spill in Culver City.

Four years ago, an equipment failure at pumping station near Braddock Drive and Centinela Avenue discharged 20,000 to 30,000 gallons of raw sewage into Ballona Creek. The spill occurred early Tuesday morning, Aug. 6, and Culver City crews had the spill under control by approximately 4 a.m.

But the Los Angeles County Department of Health was not notified until that afternoon. While there were no confirmed reports of swimmers at nearby oceans suffering ill effects of the raw sewage, the possibility of someone becoming ill was a strong possibility, county health officials said.

City crews were dispatched to repair the pump but a third equipment failure occurred, unleashing the raw sewage.

The spill prompted Fourth District Supervisor Don Knabe to call for an investigation into how overflows with the potential to pollute watersheds are reported.

The probe led to findings that revealed massive failures in the reporting process of sewage spills and the ways in which the public is notified about those spills, according to county records. An initial report found that since 2002, more than 11.6 million gallons of raw sewage had been spilled from wastewater treatment systems throughout the Santa Monica Bay Watershed.

According to county officials, over 90% of these incidents were never properly recorded by health officials, nor were records kept as to what measures were taken to protect the health and safety of the public.

Knabe, whose district includes Marina del Rey and much of the coastline, worked with Assemblyman Ted Lieu- (D-Marina del Rey) on legislation at the state level that would require more stringent reporting and oversight of sewage discharges.

Assembly Bill 800, which allows county officials to close beaches after a sewage discharge, was signed into law in 2008

“In the event of a spill, the most important thing is protecting the public,” Lieu said after AB 800 was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Public health officials are notified immediately, they can notify the public, close beaches and begin the cleanup process right away.”

Culver City resident Cathi Lamm of the Ballona Creek Renaissance says that AB 800 is important but adds that community vigilance is also critical. “If a person smells something unpleasant and thinks that it could be sewage, they shouldn’t wait until the city contacts the county,” recommended Lamm, the organization’s schools liaison and wife of Ballona Creek Renaissance President James Lamm. “AB 800 is a good backup, but citizens should also be on the lookout for anything that doesn’t smell or look right near the creek.”

An incident in Culver City on Sept. 30 made the 2006 overflow seem like a trickle.

Approximately 500,000 gallons of sewage from a line that links Culver City’s and Los Angeles’ sewer systems at the Mesmer Sewer Pump Station was released into Ballona Creek, causing the closure of five nearby beaches. The following day, lifeguards removed signs from a two-mile stretch along the coastline after bacteria levels in the ocean indicated that they had remained normal for two consecutive days.

An overflowing maintenance hole from the north outfall sewer where the Culver City force main discharges at Centinela Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard was the source of the spill. The incident was quickly reported and cleanup ended later than afternoon.

An investigation by the Regional Water Quality Board is underway to determine which entity is responsible for the sewage accident. In addition, Culver City has received a notice of violation.

Under reforms sponsored by Knabe, the municipality or government agency responsible for a sewage spill could face steep fines.

Both Los Angeles and Culver City initially denied any culpability in the massive spill. “We set up a bypass in order to mitigate the spill and then Culver City will need to make an necessary repairs. We have made all the necessary notifications and told them Culver City was responsible,” said Robert Potter, manager of Los Angeles’ Wastewater Collection System Division.

Culver City Public Works Director Charles Herbertson said Culver City should not be connected to the outfall sewer line that was blocked. “The manhole serves no purpose to us,” Herbertson countered. “It is to protect Los Angeles customers from getting sewer gas into their lines. We feel that this is a Los Angeles spill.”

Lamm noted that Sandrine Cassidy Schmitt, a Culver City business owner and board member of the Ballona Creek Renaissance, who lives near the creek, told the News that she noticed something different the day of the spill. “I actually smelled it but I didn’t know what had happened,” Cassidy Schmitt said.

Part of the package of reforms sought by Knabe included directing the county department of public health to advise all 88 cities in Los Angeles County of their legal obligations about timely reporting of sewage spills to health response teams and the creation of a database system has been created to track spills when they happen, where they happen, the severity of the spill and the steps that were taken to warn the public and protect the environment.

The reconfiguration joining Culver City and Los Angeles is now being replaced, Herbertson said. “This will eliminate the potential for this to happen again,” the public works director explained.

The abovementioned spills are not the only ones that have occurred in Culver City. In 2007, a private contractor installing fiber-optic cable at Centinela Avenue and Bristol Street hit an underground sewage line, rupturing it. In that incident, 3,000 gallons of raw sewage poured into the streets at the intersection, gushing through storm drains into the Centinela Channel and from there to Ballona Creek and out to the beach.

Calls for comment to the office of Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who represents Culver City, were not returned at press time.