Weeks After E. Coli Problems, Sewage Slips Into Lake Wildwood
NEVADA COUNTY (CBS13) — Just three weeks after a dangerous strain of E. coli bacteria sickened nine children, residents and visitors to Lake Wildwood have a new concern.
A power failure at a Nevada County sewage treatment plant sent some 1,800 gallons of raw sewage spewing into the lake.
“All of us, the homeowners and the property owners association were alarmed and concerned,” said Lake Wildwood Property Association General Manager Bob Mariani. “Though the County did a very good job in notifying us quickly.”
While the sewage spill sounds ominous on the heels of the E. coli-on-the-shore incident, Nevada County officials are downplaying the incident.
“It was quickly contained,” noted Amy Irani, Director of the county’s Environmental Health Department. “It also occurred about a mile from the public beaches and is a relatively small amount, likely to dissipate in the hundreds of thousands of gallons of water it would flow through before making its way to shore.”
“The timing isn’t helpful,” noted Mariani, “and I suppose property values may take a dip.”
Asked if he was concerned about lawsuits, Mariani, who took the job just this past June, said the E. coli problem is unfortunate, but out of the property owners' control.
While urging residents to follow the health department’s directive against swimming or bathing in the lake while boating, the association says it's water samples, taken at least 20 feet offshore, suggest E. coli is within acceptable limits. The Nevada County samples, taken just 3 feet from shore, where most of the children were when sickened last, remain excessively high.
For now, the beaches will remain closed because the E .coli levels are stagnant, and the specific cause of the coliform bacteria has yet to be determined.
“It could have been animal waste, from geese or deer, it could have come from a soiled diaper or even picnic food that may have been tainted,” Environmental Health Director Irani says the county has been consulting with the federal Centers For Disease and Prevention in hopes of tracking down the source.
She expects the five public beaches will be closed through Labor Day. Lake Wildwood homeowners say they can’t remember any E. coli outbreak this bad, in the community’s half-century of lakeside life. Later this year, it’s hoped that a planned dredging of the lake will allow plenty of fresh water to flow, “cleansing” the lake, in the words of Mariani, who took the job a very eventful 56 days ago.
