That was the message that Special District Administrator Mark Dellinger shared with the Board of Supervisors at its meeting last Tuesday, Jan. 26.
District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith had asked Dellinger for an update on the status of the Southeast Regional Wastewater Collection System before the board last week.
Following that meeting, Dellinger released an explanation of how the sewer system works to the public (See Special Districts administrator offers tips on reducing sewage spills).
“We're paying for our good intentions to a degree,” Dellinger told Lake County News.
The Southeast Regional Wastewater Collection System – which serves Clearlake and is in serious need of upgrade – had a series of spills in the wake of recent storms, with rain getting into the system and causing sewage to push up through manholes, Dellinger reported.
The 11.5 inches of rain that dropped on Lake County from Jan. 19 through 25 resulted in more than 500,000 gallons of sewage needing to be pumped out of the Southeast Regional system to prevent spills, Dellinger said.
There were thousands more gallons of sewage that did spill, however, and Dellinger isn't sure of how the state might react, and what fines may be awaiting the county for those spills.
Dellinger told the board that on Jan. 19 the system had a 4,000 gallon sewage spill and tanker trunks hauled 69,000 gallons to prevent more spills. On Jan. 20, Dellinger said there was a 15,300 gallon spill and 192,000 gallons were hauled.
Another 2,250 gallon spill occurred on the night of Jan. 25, but Dellinger said his staff was “ahead of it” and deployed pumper trucks to haul 315,000 gallons.
Inflow and infiltration are both a challenge for sewer systems, Dellinger said.
Inflow comes from unauthorized connections, such as people placing their downspouts into the gutters or opening up cleanouts in response to flooding, he said. Just one person putting their rain gutter into the system can equate to the equivalent of 50 single family home hookups to the system.
He said many public agencies are now integrating a philosophical change in their approach to the inflow and infiltration equation by offering public education to reduce the load on their systems.
Dellinger added that the agencies trying that approach are seeing success, because once people understand the issues, they tend to cooperate.
Unauthorized connections, he added, are illegal under county ordinance.
Another alternative is to build a combined sewer system, which Dellinger said is a very costly option, although he didn't have a cost estimate.
The county has a sanitary sewer system, which only deals with sewer, he said.
Previous sewer system spills have had a high cost for the the county, said Dellinger.
He told Lake County News that a series of spills in Clearlake five years ago cost the county $120,000. That money went into a state cleanup and abatement fund.
Dellinger has applied to the state for funds from that account but hasn't been successful, although he told the board that private companies often receive funds from it for projects such as removing underground storage tanks.
Smith said that, for what they've paid in spills, they could pay someone to walk door in Clearlake to door to talk to ratepayers.
The county and Clearlake Redevelopment Agency are discussing splitting the cost of a $5 million system upgrade that would include a four-mile, 12-inch diameter pipe along Highway 53 from the city's pump station four, which is located by a bridge on the highway, and extending down to the treatment plant on Pond Road, as Lake County News reported last summer.
That option would provide an estimated 3,000 single-family home hookup equivalents, as well as capacity for commercial and development at the Pearce Field airport on Highway 53, according to Dellinger.
He told the board that the county didn't receive stimulus money for the project when it applied six months ago, but he's preparing to submit an application to the state's revolving loan fund.
“We've got to make that investment no matter what happens over the next year,” said Smith.
Dellinger told the board that he budgets hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to pay for septic haulers.
Seeking innovative solutions
Dellinger said he's spent seven years trying to find solutions for inflow and infiltration and their impacts on the county's sewer system. Both are generally ways accounted for ways of water getting into the sewer system.
Infiltration can depend, to a degree, on weather. Dellinger said when the storms hit last month the county was going into its fourth year of drought. When the dry ground finally gets saturated, the water can make its way into manholes or all the way down to gravity lines in the system.
However, the the Southeast Regional system's case, they were seeing sewage surcharges into the system without any saturation.
“This stuff all happened fast, which tells us it was the inflow portion,” he said, and likely is coming from people opening cleanouts and placing downspouts in gutters.
Although education can dramatically reduce spills, Dellinger cautioned, “I won't tell you that we can absolutely eliminate spills,” since every sewer system has a certain amount of inflow and infiltration.
Dellinger suggested to the board last week that the county do comprehensive testing on its system, which would include smoke testing.
Once they identify any problem areas on private property, they'll approach property owners and work to make any needed repairs, which his engineers are telling him is, in itself, a significant educational tool.
If problems at a site persist – such as with people putting large amounts of inflow into the system – they may need to take more serious measures, he said. But that's not the first option.
“I like to see the best in people, not the worst,” he said.
Dellinger has suggested that Special Districts could send out requests for proposals to local businesses to make fixes on the system.
The ultimate goal, Dellinger said, is cooperation with sewer system ratepayers.
As he told the board Jan. 26, “I want to believe the best in people, that once they learn they're going to do the right thing.”
This Tuesday at 11 a.m., Dellinger is scheduled to return to the board to give an update on negotiations with the Clearlake Redevelopment Agency pertaining to the Southeast Regional Wastewater Collection System improvements.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
