Leaky Seal Leads to Sewage Spilling

A broken seal on a sewer pipe Saturday morning in Escondido led to a geyser-like spill of 25,000 gallons of waste water, some of which flowed into a city park, police and officials said.

The seal failed about 9 a.m. Saturday at a sewage pumping station at 2000 S. Escondido Blvd., police said.

“Where the seal broke, it went straight up into the air,” said Mary Ann Donohue, an investigator for the city attorney’s office. “It was like a geyser.”

The effluent flowed south into a creek and into Kit Carson Park, just south of the pumping station, Donohue said. The creek was dammed by city workers before the sewage could reach Lake Hodges a few miles away, she said.

The leak was fixed about 9:45 a.m., Donohue said.