About 8,250 gallons of sewage mixed with rainwater escaped into Lake Sherwood on Thursday as the result of an overwhelmed lift station, the Ventura County Environmental Health Division said.
Around 1:15 p.m. Dec. 30, heavy rain caused the lift station on Lake Sherwood Drive to fail, resulting in a backup of sewage, the county said. A lift station is used to pump wastewater from a lower to a higher elevation.
In response, the Triunfo Sanitation District, which owns the station, brought in a large diesel-powered pump to bypass the station’s pumps and extract enough wastewater to get the station working again.
The health division said the collection system started flowing again at 4 p.m.
The area where the spill occurred, on the north side of the 156-acre lake, is accessible only by the Lake Sherwood community, the county said.
Signs were posted in the area of discharge and for about a quarter-mile on each side, the county said.
Anyone seeking more information on the spill can call the Ventura Regional Sanitation District at (805) 658-4642.
—Acorn staff report