Wastewater ponds in Isleton have spilled into nearby rivers. Is the water quality at risk?

By Orko Manna

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    ISLETON, California (KCRA) — Isleton, located along the Delta in the southernmost part of Sacramento County, is a city of about roughly 800 people and is surrounded by bodies of water. And on Wednesday, city officials said wastewater ponds have spilled into those nearby waterways.

Those waterways include the Mokelumne, San Joaquin, and Sacramento rivers.

City Manager Chuck Bergson said Isleton has nine ponds that can hold about 60 million gallons of wastewater in total, but recent heavy rainfalls, as well as pipes damaged during the January storms, have filled up all of the ponds to the point where about 2 to 3 million gallons of wastewater have overflowed.

“Generally, I have one or two [ponds] empty. They’re all full,” Bergson said.

Bergson said the discharge had already received primary treatment, which is when solids are removed and is not raw sewage.

The city manager said there is no major threat to water quality.

“There’s no harm or danger to the residents here,” Bergson said.

When asked if there was a health impact to the community, Bergson responded, “I can’t say. I’m not a public health official. I’m just trying to minimize the damage as best as possible. We do primary treatment; it’s not raw sewage going out there. But it’s still technically sewage water.”

The California State Resources Control Board said officials are keeping an eye on sewage spill, but they said the impact on water quality is low due to the large amount of flood flows diluting the wastewater. Here is the Board’s full statement:

“The Central Valley Water Board has been working with Isleton to help mitigate wastewater capacity issues at their plant, which have been a cause for concern for several weeks. The Central Valley Water Board can confirm that the most recent storm events have resulted in spills to surface waters from Isleton’s wastewater facility, and the Board’s Compliance and Enforcement Teams are continuing to monitor the situation. While these unauthorized discharges are being taken very seriously by the Central Valley Water Board, the sheer volume of flood flows in the area are diluting the sewage spills so that they are not causing significant impacts to downstream water quality. Furthermore, the State Water Board’s Division of Drinking Water is working with drinking water providers to ensure that impacts from the facility spills do not affect drinking water suppliers, and no boil water notice is in effect.” But officials still want people across the region to be careful. A spokesperson for Sacramento County’s Department of Health Services also sent KCRA 3 the following statement:

“Public Health has been notified of the spill and is closely monitoring the situation. Currently there is no health risk to the general public. Out of an abundance of caution, it is recommended that people do not recreate in the impacted bodies of water, this includes swimming and fishing.” Right now, crews are pumping the wastewater out of the ponds, and they are using trucks to deliver it to different treatment plants. But Bergson told KCRA 3 that the long-term solution has two main steps: strengthening the ponds and fixing the broken pipes.

“The biggest concern is we could lose the treatment plant, the ponds, so I have to do what I can to maintain the integrity of the ponds,” Bergson said. “[We need] to do some corrective work at the ponds to keep them intact, keep the ponds intact, and then investigate, find the leaks, and secure the leaked on this side of the pumping plant.”

Bergson said he has been in contact with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and he has been working on filling out the official paperwork so the city can get the federal funding they need to make all the necessary improvements. Between the ponds and pipes, Bergson said the total cost of the whole repair project could be around $3 million.

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