Sewage pipe leak sends 20M gallons of wastewater into Contra Costa County marsh

BySuzanne Phan KGO logo
Thursday, December 5, 2024
Pipe leak sends 20M gallons of wastewater into Contra Costa Co. marsh
A sewer line break in Bay Point is causing a massive overflow of untreated wastewater that has now flowed into a nearby marsh.

BAY POINT, Calif. (KGO) -- In the East Bay, there's a rush to repair a sewer line break that's causing a massive overflow of untreated wastewater. This is happening near the Shore Acres Pump Station in Bay Point. Officials say as much as 20-million gallons of wastewater has now flowed into a nearby marsh.

"I have no words. Wow - its crazy," said Catherine Galindez of Bay Point just got home from a two-week long vacation.

There's a lot of commotion in front of her home.

"Very loud. Like I said, I couldn't sleep last night," said Galindez.

Right down the street from Galindez's home, more work crews are trying to deal with a broken sewage pipe. She had absolutely no idea what was going on.

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"No, I was not aware," said Galindez. "I never thought it was going to be something underground affecting our area in Contra Costa."

Nancy Qatsha-Delprado didn't have a clue either.

"Oh my gosh. I don't think people around here know about it. We haven't received any notice," said Qutasha-DelPRado, a Bay Point Resident.

The Delta Diablo Sanitation District says it found the break on Monday.

"We basically discovered a local corrosion hotspot in that pipeline so that caused the failure," said Vince De Lange, general manager of Delta Diablo.

The pipe carries wastewater to the treatment plant.

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About one-million gallons of raw sewage per day has flowed into the surrounding marshland between Port Chicago an Pittsburg.

"It's on private property owned by the Navy. It's not running into streets. Its actually going into the adjacent marshland which is a quarter of a mile from the Delta," said De Lange.

Delta diablo says so far, there isn't any sign of damage to the environment.

"There is no direct evidence of fish kills," said De Lange.

The Delta Diablo Sanitation District says the leak isn't impacting the residents around here. But some residents say they can smell something in the air.

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"It's really strong -- like (something) decomposed. It smells really bad now," said Galindez.

Delta Diablo says crews have been working around the clock to repair the sewer line.

As for the trucks in front of Galindez's home?

"We've got eight to nine trucks sucking wastewater out of our sewer for the last 24 hours to mitigate the overflow of water," said De Lange.

The sanitation district is also installing a pipe above ground -- it's a mile-long backup line.

"That will give us the opportunity to inspect the remainder of the pipeline to see if there are other sections that need to be rehabilitated," said De Lange.

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