Untreated Sewage Discharged Into Clear Creek After Power Outage At Treatment Plant

The City of Redding says a power outage caused what’s described as a “significant volume” of untreated sewage to enter Clear Creek and the Sacramento River. It was Sunday night after 11 O’clock as the area was hit with stormy weather and very high winds that knocked out power to the Clear Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. A backup generator started and re-supplied power, but the pumps were idle until an-call city worker responded 25 minutes later and got them working. The amount of the discharge is not known. Officials say it’s probably all reached the ocean by now. The wastewater utility is working on programming changes to the backup generator sequencing. State agencies have been notified, though it’s not yet known if fines will be imposed.