The city of Oceanside has agreed to pay $1.5 million for nearly two million gallons of sewage that overflowed at a lift station and wastewater treatment plant during a major rainstorm in 2020.
The April 2020 heavy rainfall led to over 900,000 gallons of untreated sewage discharged from the Buena Vista Lift Station and around 820,000 gallons of sewage from the San Luis Rey Water Reclamation Facility, according to the State Water Resources Control Board.
The lift station discharges sent sewage into Buena Vista Creek and Buena Vista Lagoon, while the water reclamation facility's sewage was released into the Windmill and Pilgrim creeks, flowing eventually into the San Luis Rey River.
The settlement was reached between the city and the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. As part of the agreement, Oceanside received a 10% penalty reduction if it agreed to conduct a feasibility study on how to prevent similar overflows in the future.
The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board approved the settlement last week.
"Sewage spills are one of the most significant impacts to local water and public health," said the board's executive officer, David Gibson. "We can't assume that the rainfall pattern of the last 50 years will be the same over the next 50 years. Today's action by the board reinforces the need for local agencies to plan and harden sewage systems to manage these flows and prevent failures that may result from these atmospheric river storm events."
