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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The county of Lake on Friday reported a significantly expanded area affected by the Robin Lane sewage spill and announced a work plan for the weekend.
Meanwhile, key questions about contamination, mitigation and assistance remain unanswered.
A new map included in the county’s Friday multi-departmental update shows the affected area stretching east of Smith Lane, west of Old Highway 53, south of Pond Road and north of Bowers Avenue — enclosing roughly 357 acres, according to calculations using Google Maps.
That expanded area is over eight times larger than the area previously marked based on this calculation conducted by Lake County News.
The report that came at 6 p.m. on Friday, right before a three-day holiday starts, included a new map of impacted areas, and three separate contributions from the Environmental Health, Special Districts and the Public Health Officer.
The impact area map was revised “due to [water] test results received,” said the Environmental Health section of the update.
However, the update did not disclose any well or water testing data or provide any interpretation of the results that would indicate the level or extent of contamination, nor did it provide any kind of timeline or data in terms of mitigation and recovery work.
Guidance advising affected residents to temporarily relocate remains in effect for all areas included in the newly drawn map, according to Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Bernstein in the update.
The Robin Lane sewer spill began on Sunday morning with the rupture of a 16-inch force main operated by the Lake County Sanitation District.
Lake County Special Districts was notified at around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, and the flow was finally stopped at 9:55 p.m. Monday, according to Lori Baca, the agency’s customer service supervisor.
The spill was initially reported to have impacted 58 properties in the area south of Pond Road and north of Rumsey Road, east of Pamela Lane and west of Robin Lane in and around the city of Clearlake.
With the significant expansion of the impact area, the county did not provide an updated number of properties affected.
Lake County News followed up on Friday evening.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have an immediate answer,” said Chief Deputy County Administrative Officer Matthew Rothstein, who is also a county spokesperson, in an email. “But will ensure that is discussed and an update is provided tomorrow.”
A text message was also sent to Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora with the same question on the number of affected properties.
“It would be more but I don’t have a number,” he replied.
Cleanup work continues while well testing pauses during long weekend
Lake County Special Districts reported that ongoing cleanup work has occurred at “most area properties, with lime treatment applied and decontamination of properties and driveways affected by sewage.”
Meanwhile, seven properties have reported experiencing “periodic ponding,” according to the Special Districts section on the Friday update. “Those properties have been pumped throughout the day.”
Work will continue on Saturday to disinfect driveways — in the affected area that have not been treated to date — with Decon30, a disinfectant cleaner used in water damage restoration and general cleaning, the statement said.
The Special Districts section said “Residents unable to access their properties due to health and safety concerns have been placed in hotels.” It did not indicate how many residents — out of all living in the impacted area who are under a public health advice to relocate — were placed in a hotel and how long the stay would last.
Environmental Health reported that their teams conducted water testing on Thursday, “blanketing the entire area affected by the spill.”
“A small number of parcels have not yet been sampled due to lack of owner approval to access the property,” the Friday report said, adding that no testing will be conducted over the long weekend through Monday as the lab will not be able to process samples during the period.
The update said wells are currently undergoing the “shock stage,” meaning they are being sanitized with chlorine. Wells can only be retested 24 to 48 hours after the shock process is completed. But it did not mention the number or percentage of wells that have been tested and “shocked.”
Key questions left unanswered
The county provided “door-to-door notices on status regarding affected wells,” according to the update. But it did not publicly provide any data indicating overall progress or preliminary results from the testing conducted so far.
Questions that remain unanswered involve how many wells have been tested so far, the severity of any contamination detected, how many households have temporarily relocated, what assistance the county’s local emergency proclamations made residents eligible for and when impacted households can expect that help to become available.
These were among the questions that Lake County News posed to county officials on Thursday and Friday, with the most recent one sent out at 4:17 p.m. Friday.
None of them was addressed by the update released later in the evening, and no additional replies were received.
The next town hall is expected to be held on Wednesday, Jan. 21, at 6 p.m. at Clearlake City Hall.
Editor’s note: The county released an update in which the date of the town hall was corrected from Jan. 22 to Jan. 21.
Email staff reporter Lingzi Chen at
