Clearlake residents impacted by sewage spill unsure when things will return to normal

By CBS Bay Area

Robert Ruiz loves every square foot of his Clearlake neighborhood. But at the moment, even he thinks something stinks on the block.

“We just want to change the name from Robin Lane to Caca Lane at this point,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz has gotten to know a lot more about what lives directly underneath this patch of grass after a broken pipe sent sewage flowing through his and other Robin Lane properties in January, a mess neighbors say they are still dealing with weeks later.

For 26 days, Ruiz says he leaned on others for the basics, with no access to running water at his home, where his wife needs 24/7 care.

“So I tell my friend, ‘Hey, can I come buy and get some buckets of water?’ Four or five of them so I can flush my toilet bowl in the morning,” Ruiz said.

Others who could leave the house, including neighbor Mike Holland, said the city set up portable showers and bathrooms on Robin Lane for the first 26 days without water.

Now, he says most of the neighborhood gets water delivered to their doorstep.

“They have water tanker trucks. So they go down the road and they fill everybody’s tanks up when they need water,” Holland said. “Fortunately, I don’t use a lot of water… I try to conserve.”

Neighbors are worried that at some point, that system will get too costly to keep up. The timetable for returning to normal isn’t clear either.

City officials said the aquifer is a natural groundwater formation, not a manmade system that can simply be “fixed.”

Officials are monitoring water quality in wells, as well as nearby creeks and drainage areas, to track any contamination.

So far, they said test results show contamination levels similar to background levels, meaning residents should treat their drinking water before using it.

The city estimates about 165 wells are impacted, serving roughly 475 people in the area. Their current focus is installing pre-filtration and UV sanitization systems at homes within the impact zone.

Six wells were cleared earlier this week, and they expect more to be released over the next few weeks.

But neighbors waiting on the new system, like Ruiz, aren’t too confident they’ll get it soon.

“You have to get on a list, to get on a list, to get on a list,” Ruiz said. “It’s like, you know the whole neighborhood is impacted. Why don’t you just start at the first house and go down.”

Until more wells are cleared, Robin Lane and other nearby neighborhoods say they are left waiting for clean water and long-term answers.

The City Manager’s office in Clearlake confirmed to CBS News Bay Area that since an incident management team was created to handle the crisis, about $1.2 million has already been spent on the response.