Sewage Spill Marina Del Rey

Sewage Leakwater on San Diego’s Pier 8 Channel. Sewage spills into from old septic tanks that runs along the median past Pier 8 below Embarcadero pier, then under the Channel Walk to the seawalling channels and eventually out to sea.

The smell is especially bad near La Jolla and San Ysidro, and comes from older, once abandoned and deteriorating septic tanks. Parts of the former septic tank walls are now exposed as the original septic liner became unstable and ruptured in the 20th century.

Sewage also comes through the older septic tanks on U.S. 1, immediately next to the Embarcadero, and Stearns Avenue on eastward along the waterfront.

Some of the damage goes way beyond the leakage itself. At Embarcadero, for example, long sections of sidewalk have washed over and been buried beneath the ocean. At other locations, part of a pier has been left exposed, and areas where the sewage leams break up due to heavy rains have begun to dry and collapse.

Photographs by Paula Velasquez.

Photograph by Denise Gonzales.

While leaks resulting from corroded and poor quality septic systems are not a common occurrence, they still happen. The Department of Public Information (DPI) began reporting on the number of Sewage Spills across California in 2009, and recently reported the state’s overall annual Sewage Spill Rate – when the state reports that a certain number of residents have been injured or even died as a result of an operational discharge of sewage into the ocean – increased from 0.49% in 2008 to 0.59% in 2012. This represents an increase of over 800 percent since 2005.

A Department of Water Resources news release made clear just how serious this issue is affecting the Ocean Front. The announcement reads: “(W)e anticipate that many of the affected areas may be impacted for weeks or longer, depending on the nature of the discharges. … In some cases, the actual area of the incident may be much smaller than that reported by DPI. In other cases, we anticipate that exact locations will differ after additional inspections have occurred.