Required to operate beyond capacity, they failed. It was a case of worst possible circumstances as millions of gallons of rainwater entered the wastewater system and caused the sewage equivalent to a heart attack. But on the North Coast, major rain events occur regularly and the spills in November 1998 weren't an isolated incident. There haven't been any large spills so far this year. With rainfall for December 2000 and January 2001 at half of average, there hasn't been enough water to trigger a crisis.
City officials maintain the system is working fine and improvements are underway.
But the Environmental Protection Information Center in Garberville claims Eureka has been polluting neighborhoods and Humboldt Bay for years with its unsanitary sewers, and it intends to file a lawsuit to force the city to comply with existing environmental laws. Eureka's sewage system, designed in the 1970s, collects wastewater from the city and, through the Humboldt Community Services District, its surrounding areas. Once in the lines, sewage is routed north to the old site of the Hill Street Treatment Plant, abandoned in the early 1980s. The sewage is then pumped back south again to the Elk River Treatment Plant. Along its long and winding way, the wastewater is pushed by several pump and lift stations.