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Staff Report
Thursday, July 24, 2008 5:28 PM PDT

The Novato Sanitary District on Tuesday afternoon started cleaning up a sewage spill that came out of a manhole and went into a storm drain that empties into Novato Creek. A grease blockage caused the sewer backup and spill from a manhole between Clemente Court and San Luis Way.

“We’re thinking it started on the weekend, but we didn’t get a call (notifying us) until Tuesday around 4,” Beverly James, the district’s manager-engineer, said Thursday.

Novato Sanitary District crews estimate the spill to be between 5,000 and 15,000 gallons. The water district’s environmental compliance staff sampled Novato Creek both upstream and downstream of the spill. Preliminary water testing in the creek indicated that the spill was contained to the immediate vicinity of the storm drain outfall. Novato Creek has been posted to notify people to stay away.

Representatives of the Marin County Department of Environmental Health, California Department of Fish & Game have inspected the site and reviewed the Novato Sanitary District’s response procedures.

James said, “Novato is fortunate to have a very competent, professional crew to respond to these emergencies. We got the call notifying us of a potential spill at 3:50 p.m. and had a crew onsite by 4:10 p.m. The blockage was located and cleared by 4:40 p.m.

The Sanitary District crew set to work cleaning the storm drain and the affected area of the creek.

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