4,200 gallons of wastewater flow into creek

Some 4,200 gallons of wastewater flowed into Sonoma Creek around midday Sunday, Feb. 15 due to a sewer pipe blockage, according to a press release from the Sonoma County Water Agency, entering the creek from a storm drain near Boyes Boulevard and Riverside Drive.
Work crews cleared the blockage, which was caused by a combination of high wastewater flow and the pipe being partially clogged with grease. The blockage occurred near the intersection of Northside and Gregor Streets. The sewer pipe is part of the Sonoma Valley County Sanitation District, which is operated by SCWA.
“It doesn’t take much for some areas in that system to have blockage issues,” said Brad Sherwood, public information officer for SCWA. “The pipes are really old.” He said the agency had not previously had a problem at that spot.
Water was flowing from the culvert, but work crews did not report sewage or a sewage odor in the vicinity of the culvert or in the creek. SCWA judged it unlikely that fish or wildlife were affected by the overflow due to the small volume and duration of the spill, as well as the high flow in Sonoma Creek, reportedly running at approximately 1,150 cubic feet per second at the time.
The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, California Department of Fish and Game, Sonoma County Health Services and the Office of Emergency Services were notified by the SCWA.
Various past overflows in the district have been also attributed in part to grease clogging sewer lines.