Amount of North Shore sewage reaching lake uncertain
By Steve Timko, Reno Gazette-Journal
A five-month-old, $278,000 generator failed Dec. 19 and 150,000 gallons of sewage spilled out of a manhole onto the ground about 260 feet from Lake Tahoe on Dec. 19.
The North Tahoe Public Utility District has hired an expert to try to determine how much of the sewage made it into the lake.
But NTPUD did three tests and there were no indications of pollution in the water, said Pam Lefrancios, an NTPUD executive assistant.
Problems started when the electricity around Lake Tahoe was cut due to weather, Lefrancois said. A $278,000 generator the district had installed the prior July to provide back up power to the sewer pump at the main station kicked on and NTPUD employees then went to install generators at other satellite pumps, she said.
The system notified NTPUD workers that the main generator had stopped working at about 1 p.m. and workers used NTPUD collection system to store the sewage, which averages about 861,000 gallons a day, Lefrancois said.
