Isleton sewage on verge of overflowing into surrounding rivers
ISLETON - The Isleton Wastewater Plant is on the brink of overflowing into surrounding rivers.
"If it keeps going it will breach into the river system," said Isleton City Manager Chuck Bergson.
The city's sewage system is currently made up of eight ponds. Some of the sewage pipes broke during the January storms, leaving the ponds to fill up faster than they can be treated.
"With the ponds, we can probably store about 40 million gallons, but we are at the limit," Bergson told CBS 13.
The Sacramento River, Georgiana Slough, and Mokelumne River are all at risk of sewage seeping in.
"Once things get into the water, then you lose wildlife and plants and fish," said Jackie Fields, who lives in Rio Linda and is concerned about the overflow.
Money from the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) is helping the city truck up to 100,000 gallons of sewage to the Sacramento Wastewater Treatment Plant each day, but there are not enough truck drivers to move the waste.
"We have beefed up the ponds. We have added a little elevation to them. We have shuffled them around," said Bergson.
The problem the town is facing is that even adding more trucks would damage the roads around the Isleton treatment pools.
"If we abuse the roads and levees around the ponds, we could actually make it worse," said Bergson.
People like Fields say what they are doing is not enough.
"If we can do something to prevent a crisis, we should do it," said Fields.
Bergson told CBS 13 they can keep up with 120,000 gallons of inflow.
"But with the storm coming if the inflow pushes 300,000-400,000 we are going to be in trouble," said Bergson.
Cal OES, FEMA, and the State Water Board have all been notified about the trouble, but Bergson said help will not come until after the diluted sewage spills into the rivers.
"It is not going to be news to them, but hopefully as soon as it happens, I hope it does not happen, but they will know the situation," said Bergson.
The long-term solution is fixing the broken pipes. The city of Isleton has applied for a grant from the Water Quality Control Board, but repairs won't happen for at least another year or two.
"We may also identify where in the collection system is the biggest leak and we can repair those and make it through next winter," said Bergson.
With the imminent threat of rain in the coming days, the sewage pools may overflow into the surrounding waters.
