Power Outage, Heavy Storm Cause Sewage Spill into River

A spill at the Redlands Water Treatment plant on Nevada Street, caused by a power outage combined with a heavy deluge of storm water, recently released up to 600,000 gallons of partially treated raw sewage into the rain-swollen Santa Ana River. A combination of a Southern California Edison power outage in the area and heavy rainfall and storm water flowing from above the treatment plant adding water into treatment reservoirs caused the reservoirs to overflow for a little more than two hours Sunday, Aug. 3, between 9 and 11:30 p.m. The wastewater treatment plant is downstream from the city’s potable water production facilities and no drinking water was contaminated. In addition, the nearest well is two miles up-gradient from the spill area and consequently unaffected. The power outage, which affected portions of northwest Redlands and unincorporated county areas, occurred at 6:10 p.m. city crews used generators to restore partial power to the plant, but were unable to keep up with the additional heavy flow from the weekend storm adding to the treatment reservoirs. The city alerted the State Water Resources Control Board of the spill. City of Redlands Municipal Utilities and Engineering Department staff stated drinking water both in Redlands and downstream communities remains safe. “We want to assure city of Redlands customers that all the water we deliver is completely safe and is not affected by the recent spill,” said Municipal Utilities and Engineering Director Fred Mousavipour. In addition, the partially-treated sewage moving downstream would be diluted by the heavy flow in the river before reaching any water facilities in Riverside or Orange counties, where the water would be disinfected.