CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A week after several million gallons of wastewater were spilled onto dozens of properties in Clearlake, residents there are facing uncertainty about the safety of their well water and struggling to find solutions in the midst of disrupted lives.

An estimated 2.9 million gallons of sewage were released during the Robin Lane sewer spill in Clearlake, county staff said in an email response to Lake County News’ request on Saturday.

The disclosure came a week after the rupture of a county-operated 16-inch force main on Sunday, Jan. 11 that resulted in a massive sewage spill. The spill lasted from last Sunday morning through Monday night.

The initial report filed with the state emergency services on Jan. 11 by Lake County Special Districts – the agency that operates the wastewater system – listed the volume of sewage released as 2,000 gallons. 

The newly disclosed estimate is roughly 1,450 times higher.

The report to the state was updated on Thursday with the 2.9 million gallon figure, but was not released to the public until Lake County News again requested the total spill size on Saturday. Lake County News had previously requested that figure on Jan. 12.

“Staff was able to contain and recover much of the spill,” the county’s email response provided through Chief Deputy County Administrative Officer Matthew Rothstein said. It did not specify how much sewage was recovered.

“Draft reports have been filed with the State Water Board, and the final reporting will show how much of the sewage was contained and recovered, when final numbers are received from the engaged pumper trucks,” the email added. 

“Remarkably,” the email said, “only approximately 3,900 gallons were released into the drainage ditch that ran to Burns Creek and into Clear Lake.”

The volume of the sewage spill, however, is not merely a seven-digit figure on paper; it has been felt by impacted residents and workers on the ground.

For workers responding to the incident, it meant pumping sewage away around the clock. “They had to just continuously pump 24/7,” said Lori Baca, customer service supervisor for Lake County Special Districts, during a Wednesday night town hall at Clearlake City Hall. 

She explained that crews ran into parts shortages and multiple valve installation failures before the spill was finally stopped at 9:55 p.m. Monday.

“They worked their butts off to try to shut it off,” said Supervisor Bruno Sabatier at the town hall. “Unfortunately, it's very frustrating when everything seems to fail. It was just horrible the way it went down.”

For impacted residents, it means life “upended,” in Sabatier’s words. 

Child care home forced to close over drinking water safety

Stephanie and Juan Piseno run an in-home child care business on Robin Lane and have been caring for 11 children until Jan. 11, when the sewer system ruptured near their home, sending a massive sewage spill across the road and into what Juan described as “a river of poop and pee.” 

“So we have to close it, and we don’t know when we can reopen,” Stephanie said Wednesday afternoon, standing in her kitchen, four days after the spill started. 

“That’s the family’s only income,” she said, trying to steady her voice but choking. “Our income is gone. We have to pay a mortgage for a house that we can't live in.”

The habitat has to be safe and have clean running water to be licensed as a child care home, Juan said.

“We care about the safety of all the kids,” Stephanie added. And in a soft tone with a reluctant smile, “We don’t even want our kids here,” she said. 

The couple have four children of their own, with the youngest just 2 years old, who, as the conversation went on, was crawling on the floor with a bright, innocent smile. Her mom scooped her up from the floor.

The broken force main, located near the northern end of Robin Lane just over 500 yards up from the Pisenos’ home, extends along the road.

The sewage flow that flooded the area was initially marked by the county as enclosed by Pond Road, Rumsey Road, Pamela Lane and Robin Lane. 

On Friday, the county revised the impact area map and expanded it by eight times – from an estimated 40 acres to 357 acres, based on a Lake County News assessment of the impacted area – to include east of Smith Lane, west of Old Highway 53, south of Pond Road and north of Bowers Avenue. 

This revision of the impact zone was due to water testing results obtained by Lake County Environmental Health, and is subject to change, according to the county's announcement. 

The Pisenos’ home is among the first announced 58 properties that have been impacted, many of which rely on a private well for everyday use of water, including drinking. 

Public notification of the incident and warnings against the use of well water, however, did not come timely.

“I went outside around 12:30 in the afternoon because I noticed the water flowing,” Stephanie said of Sunday in a text message. “I got a [Nixle] alert at 4 p.m. not to drink the water.”

So had the family of six been drinking water from the well until 4 p.m.? 

“Pretty much yes,” Stephanie replied. “We thought it was a small situation at first [and] didn't think our personal well would be impacted.”

The first Nixle Stephanie received about the matter came at 11:20 a.m. and asked her to avoid the area “due to a sewage leak.” 

The first Nixle alert advising against consuming well water arrived at 3:58 p.m.

In fact, Lake County Special Districts was notified of sewage running down the street at 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 11, according to Baca’s statements at the town hall. 

The agency filed its initial report with California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES, at 9:39 a.m. Jan. 11, reporting just 2,000 gallons of sewage had been released and that no waterways – a reference to the nearby creek or lake – had been impacted. 

That initial report also stated that the spill was “stopped and contained” just two hours after it began. However, in total, the spill lasted 37.5 hours, Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora told the City Council during its Thursday night meeting.

The county’s first press release reached Lake County News’ inbox and Facebook page around 3:30 p.m. Jan. 11, followed by the Nixle alert to residents about water use around 4 p.m. – both more than eight hours after the incident began and over six hours after the Special Districts’ first official filing with Cal OES.

Still, not all residents in the area have access to Nixle or social media like Facebook where government agencies communicate sewage leak, potential water contamination and public health advice. 

Shean Heape, who lives on Old Highway 53 with his wife, said they immediately stopped using well water after seeing the alerts in the afternoon. 

“Everything got shut off first for me,” said Heape, who then started making phone calls to alert neighbors. 

Only on Monday, Heape found out that there were neighbors around without any access to Nixle alerts or the internet. 

“Some neighbors are on flip phones,” he said. “Not everybody has everything.”

Seeking test results and explanations

Although Robin Lane is within the city limit of Clearlake, it remains a private road. Residents on the street and City Manager Flora said the city does not pave it. 

It is an unpaved, dirt road – with numerous potholes especially toward the south end near Rumsey – which turned muddy and carried an “atrocious” smell as the sewage flowed through, as described by Christina Huron, who lives next door to the Pisenos.

Standing in her driveway, Huron pointed to an area carved out by straw wattles leading into her property. Sewage was directed there and pooled in her front yard, she said, when two trucks were positioned in front of her house, sucking sewage as it flowed “all across our property” and onto a neighbor’s property farther down the road before returning to Pamela Lane.

“We have gotten nothing but two and a half gallons of water,” she said of the only help she received on Sunday and Monday, when the spill was still active.

A few hours after the Thursday morning interview outside her property – where straw wattles lining the road separated her from the Lake County News reporter – Huron said in an email she had just received the well testing results, which suggested her well may be among the most contaminated in the area.

“Coliform 2419.6” and “E.coli 2419.6,” she sent the numbers over. 

“I was told these are off the charts numbers and they can’t calculate any higher than these numbers,” Huron said of what she had learned from the call with staff from Environmental Health.

The U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says coliform is a water quality indicator, and that “a positive test for fecal coliforms or E. coli likely means that poop (feces), and the harmful germs in poop, have gotten into your well water.”

Lake County News reached out to the county, requesting explanations on what these readings mean and what kind of risks and level of seriousness these numbers signify, along with questions on overall well testing results and progress, on Thursday and Friday. 

No information on these questions has been provided so far either through public updates or direct correspondence with Lake County News. 

It appears later that for some, it’s even difficult to acquire their own results. 

Stephanie Piseno said she called Environment Hall three times on Friday asking for well testing readings for her home. 

“They just told me ‘positive’ but no numbers,” she said in a text message. 

So far, the overall extent of contamination remains unknown to the public.

The relocation conundrum

Even before the public health officer advised residents relying on private wells to relocate, Cassandra Hulbert, who also lives on Robin Lane, knew she had to find a safe place for her family to stay. 

Hulbert has two disabled children and an autoimmune disorder herself. She said her priority was keeping her children and herself safe and alive. 

“We’ve been placed in a hotel – and only one other family has – and that’s because we pushed and pushed and pushed,” Hulbert said Wednesday afternoon during an interview on Robin Lane.

She explained that she returns every day to feed her four chickens, three rabbits, four cats and two giant mastiffs that she cannot bring with her to the hotel. 

At that moment, she said the family was told to move out of the hotel room on Thursday, and that she was ready to fight. 

“If I need to physically be there and state my case and fight – fight the good fight – that's what I'm prepared to do,” she said. 

Over the past week, Hulbert has been among a group of outspoken neighbors in the impacted area who organized resources, called public agencies for information and advocated for affected residents while caring for their own families.

“We have elderly, we have disabled, we have pets and horses that are two feet deep in poop water,” she said of the vulnerable residents and animals impacted that need help and support, which in her opinion, don’t come easily. 

“I’m really exhausted,” she said on Friday. 

After the Wednesday town hall, Hulbert said she had the hotel room for the family extended until next Tuesday. 

“Not ideal but more days than yesterday,” she said in a text message. 

Hulbert isn’t waiting until Tuesday, but has been actively talking to officials every day including Supervisor Sabatier. 

“I just wanted to make sure we were gonna get word before Tuesday morning if it was extended or not,” she said on Saturday in a text message. 

With an expanded impact area, Clearlake City Manager Flora said the number of properties impacted would be bigger than the previously stated 58. 

Since Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Bernstein advised relocation on Wednesday, how many households have relocated remains unknown. Also unknown is the anticipated duration of stay for those who have got a hotel room. 

The Piseno family of six also managed to secure a hotel room coming out of the Wednesday town hall, also with a Tuesday expiration date for that assistance. 

Stephanie Piseno said on Friday that she has no idea what’s going to happen next for the relocation, or when they can return home safely.

Huron on Thursday said she missed the life before this “catastrophe.”

“Everything was green because we just had rain. Everything was beautiful,” she said, looking around the yard. “And it's just sewage.”

Saturday afternoon, Huron said some people are getting water tanks and portable toilets. “My husband is on the phone now talking with special districts because we were supposed to receive those too,” she said in a text message.

“Straw wattles have been removed and our driveway and walkway were sprayed with a disinfectant,” she added in her update. 

At least the stray cats scouting nearby no longer have to leap over the wattles while wandering around potentially contaminated soil as seen on Wednesday. 

Email staff reporter Lingzi Chen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..