STEPS TAKEN TO STEM FLOW OF SEWAGE REASSURANCE COMES AFTER DISTURBING REPORT.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON

Staff Writer

With warmer weather drawing more beachgoers to Los Angeles County's shores, officials said Tuesday they have taken steps to protect the public from hazardous sewage spills.

The reassurance comes two months after a report found officials failed to keep records or act quickly to protect the public in more than 90 percent of 200 spills of raw sewage into the ocean and county waters since 2002.

"We have made a lot of progress," Department of Public Health Director Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding said, noting the county is setting up a regional call center to report spills for quicker cleanup.

"We are developing a database we have put online for all spills of any size and are working with the Public Health Commission to develop educational materials for all operators and owners of sanitary systems to make sure they notify the health officer after any spills," he said.

After auditors released the report about the spills, county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky disputed a claim that most of the incidents occurred in his district and the sewage went into the Santa Monica Bay Watershed.

Yaroslavsky asked for a more detailed report, and late last month Auditor-Controller Tyler McCauley wrote that his office reviewed 241 spills of more than 1,000 gallons from January 2002 to July 2006.

The report found 94 spills totaling 2.8 million gallons occurred in the Santa Monica Bay Watershed and 92 spills totaling 19 million gallons occurred in the Los Angeles River Watershed, which flows into Long Beach Harbor.

Auditors found 23 spills totaling 219,400 gallons occurred in the San Gabriel Valley Watershed, three spills totalling 33,500 gallons occurred in the Antelope Valley Watershed, and five spills totaling 2 million gallons occurred in the Santa Clara Watershed.

In June 2003, a 1.2 million gallon spill occurred in the dry Santa Clara riverbed within 500 feet of a neighborhood.

"Our concern was it was very close to a residential area," McCauley said. "It formed a pond and just remained there."

McCauley noted that state law does not require officials to notify the county health officer of a sewage spill if the spill cannot flow into the ocean.

In response, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to direct officials to pursue a change in state law to require health officer notification of all spills, including ones occurring in dry riverbeds.

"One thing we are doing is sending notifications to contractors," Fielding said. "It's not just people working on sewer systems, but contractors who inadvertently break sewer pipes who need to report spills, too."

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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