Placerville Declares Emergency After Storm Sends Wastewater Into Hangtown Creek
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EL DORADO COUNTY (CBS13) — A state of emergency has been declared in Placerville after a wastewater treatment plant overflowed into a nearby creek during Tuesday's storm.
Crews worked overnight to try to stop a bad problem from getting worse. City manager Cleve Norris says the 1 million gallon basin for wastewater overflow is now overflowing itself.
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"We're an old town, so unfortunately there is a mixture where storm drain lines are still going into our sewer system," he said.
Sandbags can't hold it back, and some of the storm and wastewater is seeping through bags and beyond the treatment plant's fences, into the nearby raging Hangtown Creek.
The city set up massive pumps and trucks are transporting excess water to other nearby wastewater plants, but the stormwater is coming faster than the trucks are.