A recent report issued by the Navy provides insight into its safeguards and procedures, but not these measures’ failure to prevent and identify the sewer cross-connection at a naval barracks that led to an estimated 14 million gallons of sewage running into San Diego Bay over the course of two years.
In the Navy’s Dec. 20 response to a Notice of Violation issued by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Navy outlined the incident, which took place at Palmer Hall, a barracks at 32nd Street Naval Station, along with its repair and clean-up. At the time of construction in 2004, builders erroneously connected a 10-inch sewer line to a storm drain, resulting in two years worth of undetected outflow. The cross-connection was discovered by a team of Seabees working on an unrelated construction project nearby on Nov. 17. Soltek Pacific, the Navy’s general contractor for Palmer Hall, fixed the connection on the same day and supervised the subsequent clean-up.
The Navy and Soltek Pacific are each conducting their own investigations into the incident: Soltek Pacific is looking into which of more than 30 subcontractors involved in Palmer Hall’s construction are to blame, while the Navy is investigating the failure of its surveys and visual inspections to detect the outflow.
Due to its holiday leave period, the Navy had not responded to questions regarding the time of completion for its investigation as of press time, while Soltek Pacific Chief Executive Officer Steve Thompson is not putting a timeline on his company’s own internal analysis.
“Right now, I do not have a definitive answer what caused it: that is the easiest way to say it,” said Thompson.
The Navy did not pay for any of the repairs and subsequent clean-up; Soltek Pacific directed this at its own cost. The company has been contracted with the Navy since 1978.
Perhaps most intriguing in the Navy’s response to the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s request is the disclosure of its standard operating procedures, which, if properly conducted, “should have prevented the cross-connection at Palmer Hall,” according to the Navy.
“It is not known, at this time, which of the procedures … was conducted in error. This is currently under investigation,” according to the Navy’s submittal.
To prevent cross-connections, six procedures are utilized: a site approval process prior to construction; a technical review of contractor construction plans; utility marking prior to construction; “quality assurance/quality control to ensure construction”; illicit connection surveys to ensure no historical cross-connections exist; and quarterly visual inspections of industrial storm drain outfalls for dry weather discharges.
Three storm drain illicit connection surveys have been conducted at the naval station since 1995, with the latest survey conducted in 2002 “” two years prior to the construction of Palmer Hall. However, it was not known as of press time how often surveys are carried out or for when the next one was scheduled.
But most alarming is the failure of visual inspections to spot dry-weather discharges that amounted to around 19,000 gallons of discharge per day for two years.
When asked whether the Navy is considering legal action against its contractors, Scott Sutherland, public information officer for Navy Region Southwest, remarked, “The Navy won’t discuss legal actions, supposed or otherwise, at this juncture.”