Sonoma County Gazette, March 2014: Guerneville Sewage Spill

Major pipe break causes raw sewage spill into Russian River….
Leaking ‘water’ was reported near the Vacation Beach pump station late in the day on February 12th. When Water Agency crews were on site the following day, attempting to repair a leak, the 16” pipe broke and began spewing about 40,000 gallons an hour of raw sewage that ended up in the river nearby. It is estimated that about 100,000 gallons entered the river before a vacuuming operation began transferring the still leaking sewage to eight tanker trucks holding up to 5,000 gallons each and transporting it to the nearby treatment plant for processing. The pipe was repaired by early the next day.

This event came a few days after a four day period of heavy rain that dropped about a foot of water in the general area. Because of leaky pipes throughout the system, it is likely that excessive water entered the pipes. The break was located near the end of the collection system where it was probably under heavy pressure to move vast amounts of collected sewage after a significant rain event.