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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Water quality testing continues at homes impacted by the Robin Lane sewer spill as the UV filtration and sanitization systems are installed.
The systems are described as “long-term” mitigation measures for homes affected by the 2.9-million-gallon sewage spill, which was caused by the rupture of a county-operated 16-inch force main on Jan. 11, affecting homes within the city limit.
Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora in his update at the Thursday City Council meeting said that the installation of these systems is still ongoing and more units had been ordered, following an initial order of 100 units in February.
“We still have a few weeks left of completing the installations,” Flora said.
The ruptured force main is operated by the Lake County Sanitation District, which is overseen by the Lake County Special Districts. Since late January, the city of Clearlake and the Lake County Office of Emergency Services have taken over command to jointly lead long-term recovery.
The incident command team determined that about 164 homes relying on private water wells were impacted by the spill. Residents have been left without safe running water amid concerns about contamination from fecal bacteria in both the wells and the underlying aquifer.
These UV filtration and sanitization systems are designed to disinfect water that may be “microbiologically unsafe, which is obviously the main issue here,” Flora said during a previous town hall meeting addressing impacted residents.
To date, 63 filtration systems have been installed and approximately 825 water samples have been completed.
Flora said on Thursday that Environmental Health is coordinating the “post-testing of the systems” in order to make sure the systems operate as intended.
He explained that the previous testing protocol of wells since the spill day – with a focus on fecal bacteria only – “is not happening in that way anymore.”
Flora said the water testing now focuses on two components: measuring turbidity, iron, manganese levels in water entering the systems, and testing for fecal bacteria – including total coliform and E. coli – in water flowing out from the systems.
“A significant number of wells in the area that have – I guess – suffered from a variety of other water quality problems that are not related to the sewer spill that homeowners may or may not have been aware of,” he said.
“Some of those issues have the potential to impact the frequency of maintenance needed on the system,” Flora said.
He added that for preexisting conditions, “Resolution to those issues is going to be the responsibility of the individual property owners.”
Flora did not touch on specifics of the preexisting conditions in his update.
Flora also mentioned briefly about insufficient communication after the systems were installed.
“We need to do a little bit more communication around some of those things,” he said.
The item ended without any questions or comment from the council or the public.
Lingzi Chen is a staff reporter at Lake County News and a 2024-2026 California Local News Fellow. Email her at lchen@lakeconews.com.
