A break in an underground pipe sent more than a million gallons of treated sewage water from a North Marin Water District pond in Tomales flowing into Walker Creek between Oct. 1 and Oct. 9.
The mishap, the worst in the district's history, prompted officials with the state Department of Health Services to shut down the three oyster farms in Tomales Bay closest to the mouth of Walker Creek.
The ban on oyster sales, which may last through Sunday, Oct. 20, has crippled the shellfish growers just as they had started shipping their product to restaurants and retailers for the fall season.
"We're losing thousands [of dollars] a day," said Terry Sawyer, co-owner of Marshall's Hog Island Oyster Company, on Monday, the fifth day of the shutdown.
Also closed were oyster beds leased by Point Reyes Oyster Company and Bay Bottom Beds.
Sawyer's partner John Finger said Tuesday he plans to report losses of roughly $11,000 to the water district. "That number goes up if I lose another weekend of sales," he said.
As for North Marin, Finger said, "I'd like them to feel somewhat responsible...It's really putting a crimp in our style."
Chris DeGabriele, general manager of North Marin, told district directors Tuesday evening, "We'll be looking at some claims, I'm sure, from the outer bay oyster growers."
He added that the district can expect fines from the Regional Water Quality Control Board for two violations: allowing too much treated water to be discharged within a short time, and allowing water to flow outside water district property.
Jorge Rebagliati, co-owner of Santa Rosa-based Bay Bottom Beds, said this week, "We are planning on requesting compensation at least for the sales loss," an estimated $6,000 to $7,000.
Rebagliati said he is pleased the district has taken full responsibility for the spill, and that DeGabriele has been responsive to growers' concerns. "He understands that we have been hurt by the situation," the grower said.
Martin Strain, owner of Point Reyes Oyster Company, fared better. He can continue business from farms he operates in the southern part of the bay - one near Cypress Grove and another north of the mouth of Tomasini Creek.
Here's what has happened:
At 10 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 9, North Marin treatment-plant operator Don Larkin noticed that the district's remote holding pond on a bluff near the top of Cerini Road in Tomales had lost three feet of water. Larkin quickly closed a valve that delivers water to a pasture-irrigation system.
North Marin later that day notified county, regional, and state environmental agencies that a two-inch pipe had broken, and secondarily treated sewage water had saturated the soil, flowed down a canyon south into an unnamed creek and from there into Walker Creek.
Secondarily treated sewage has had solids removed, and suspended solids have been reduced through exposure to algae in an aerated pond. The water had not undergone tertiary treatment - final filtration using coagulants.
North Marin estimated that three feet of pond water flowing at 100 gallons per minute - 146,000 gallons per day - probably dumped 1.02 million gallons starting Oct. 1.
Late on Oct. 9, oyster growers were told to cease operations until water tests and tests of oyster meat showed safe levels of fecal coliform bacteria, which oysters absorb and concentrate. Signs were posted along Walker Creek warning of the spill.
By Saturday morning, Oct. 12, regulatory disarray had set in. An official from the state health department's food and drug division mistakenly ordered all Tomales Bay oyster growers to shut down.
"Apparently, there was a breakdown between the [state's] environmental-management branch and the food-and-drug branch," said Drew Alden, owner of Tomales Bay Oyster Company, whose oysters are grown almost 10 miles south of Walker Creek delta. "We were all closed during this state of confusion."
The tangle was straightened out after a couple of hours and phone calls, Alden said, and his own company was allowed to resume operation. Subsequently, "we got hit hard [with customers] because Hog Island got shut down," he said. "We are presently out of oysters."
Initial tests of oyster meat from the three growers found soaring levels of fecal coliform, said Greg Langlois, a biologist with the state health department's shellfish division.
One meat sample taken from Bay Bottom Beds on Thursday, Oct. 10, showed bacteria levels 1,500 times higher than state health limits, he said.
"Major samples of shellfish were certainly positive for fecal coliform well above the acceptable level," Langlois said. "Certainly, [the delta] has got a contamination problem."
However, the oysters seem to be quickly cleansing themselves. More recent samples of Hog Island oysters contained acceptable levels of bacteria, biologist Langlois said.
Samples of the water in Walker Creek have shown some bacteria contamination, although both North Marin and county officials noted the difficulty in determining if the counts result from the spill, runoff from ranches, or something else entirely.
Marin Environmental Health Chief Ed Stewart noted that swimming, fishing, or clam-digging in Walker Creek is never a smart idea. "That is not a surveilled creek," he said. Although the pollution level is now maybe no greater than it was before the spill, "I don't want to give the impression that [swimming or fishing] is okay to do."
Standards for swimming, however, are less stringent than those for oyster growing, and water samples from the bay and creek have continued to test within state standards for oyster growing, said Langlois.
"Given time, the oysters will clean up," Langlois said. "[The growers] don't have to go out and destroy product that was out in the bay. From the perspective of the growers, circumstances are looking better."
Better maybe, but not great. Although growers will be able to sell oysters that were submerged at the time of the spill once they cleanse themselves, they worry about the stigma of contamination may linger in the minds of customers.
Hog Island's Sawyer speculated that restaurateurs are saying, "'What the hell's going on here? I don't have a reliable source.'" Having those customers learn that what's going on is a sewage spill, is simply not good for business, he said.
His partner, Finger, said he's concerned about the health risk from oysters distributed before the spill was detected. "We sold stuff through the weekend - the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth [of October] - then we got the call on the ninth," he said.
Growers were miffed upon learning that the water district inspects the remote Tomales holding pond and irrigation system only once a week, and that there is no mechanism for detecting leaks.
"The problem is that they don't have an automatic shutoff valve, making a hazard out of something that is simple to solve," said Bay Bottom Beds' Rebagliati.
Such relaxed monitoring also concerned state biologist Langlois. He said that if North Marin can't guarantee that a spill can be stopped before it hits the bay, oyster growing may have to regulated even further.
"Any potential impact [on the health of oysters] has to be a manageable thing," Langlois said.
North Marin's operations manager, Paul Smedshammer, told district directors Tuesday he will see to it that a new system of valves, meters, and alarms is installed so that such an accident isn't repeated.
In the meantime, said district Director Dennis Rodoni, "I'd like to see increased visitation at this site. A weekly visit is pushing it. I'd like to see that doubled."
Director George Amaroli noted that when the irrigation pipe in question was installed in 1978, the manufacturer promised "extensive life with nothing to worry about. This was a lifetime product."
Director Don Brand suggested the district look into filing a claim against the manufacturer.
The oyster growers, for their part, were reminded again that success can rest on events outside their control.
"Tomales Bay, as pristine as it is, has some threats to it," said Sawyer, who cited the growers' uneasy proximity not only to the North Marin ponds, but the Borello sewage ponds south of Marshall, West Marin Sanitary Landfill in Point Reyes Station, and a proposed sewage treatment plant in Dillon Beach.
"We in aquaculture have to be much more vigilant in being the canaries on the bay," he said.