Sausalito Sewage Spill

A plugged pipe in downtown Sausalito caused several thousand gallons of sewage to overflow down streets and into Richardson Bay over the weekend. The spill, which started sometime Saturday night and was finally cleared about 17 hours later, prompted a Bay Area-wide response team to close down Swede’s Beach at the foot of Valley Street. Nearby marinas and other waterfront businesses were apparently unaffected and continued business as usual on Sunday. Early estimates of the size of the spill varied from 6,000 to 18,000 gallons, making this a relatively small incident compared to the 2.7 million gallon spill from a Mill Valley treatment plant last February. Few if any Sausalito boaters noted (or smelled) anything amiss — unless they lived at the Portofino Riviera Apartments on Main Street, where the parking, storage and laundry facilities were flooded by the spill.