Nearly 10,000 gallons of sewage released into SLO County creek during storm
During the massive storm that hit San Luis Obispo County on Monday and early Tuesday, thousands of gallons of sewage spilled into a creek in Morro Bay, according to the county Public Health Department.
The sewage release started at around 11 a.m. Monday and eventually stopped 12 hours later, the agency said in a news release Tuesday evening.
About 9,900 gallons of sewage overflowed from a manhole off the Embarcadero road and into the mouth of Morro Creek, said Damaris Hanson, Morro Bay’s utility division manager.
“The collection system was overwhelmed from the storm,” she said. “It was very diluted. There were a few feet of standing water in that area.”
The situation could have turned much worse had the city been operating its old wastewater treatment plant in that area between Morro Bay High School and Lila Keiser Park and the Morro Dunes RV Park, Hanson added.
That area is one of the lowest in the city, so much of the storm’s runoff flowed there and caused extensive flooding, she said.
Instead, Morro Bay was operating its new water reclamation facility, located off Highway 1 and South Bay Boulevard.
“The new plant did quite well in the storm,” Hanson said.
This story was originally published January 11, 2023 at 9:38 AM.
