EDITORIAL: Sewer system aging

Last week’s major sewage spill was an embarrassment for Laguna Beach and another wake-up call — or head-thumping — for the city, which has done a lot to improve its deteriorating sewer system but obviously not quite enough.

Last year the city was celebrating its national recognition as the only West Coast Beach Buddy, an honor presented by the Natural Resources Defense Council for having the fewest sewage incidents on the Pacific shore.

That would be a big deal for any city, but especially Laguna Beach, which was fined by the EPA not too many years ago for having chronically leaky sewers.

This year, city workers were out in white hazmat coveralls shoveling raw effluent to keep it from the beaches.

We are still tallying the gallons of raw sewage that actually reached the ocean, but it’s hovering around 20,000.

Ironically, the city just completed a major overhaul of the North Coast Interceptor — the sewer line that runs under the Coast Highway and carries most of the stuff to the treatment plant — at Nyes Place.

That lengthy project took weeks longer to complete than estimated and caused enormous disruption of the heavily trafficked highway. Businesses in the small commercial zone at Nyes were angered by the lengthiness of the project and the harm it caused to their day-to-day operations. The city gave the restaurateurs and shopkeepers some funds to promote themselves and explain the situation to the public, but it’s clear business was way off over the holiday season and beyond.

When the project finally finished up and the road was fully open — just last month — everyone in Laguna Beach breathed a sigh of relief. Those sighs turned to gasps and gagging when the sewer line burst at Diamond Street last Thursday.

So why can’t the city keep the sewer system in good repair?

Look at the Nyes project, and it’s not hard to see why.

Sewers get old and need fixing; meanwhile, cities grow up around them and nobody wants to dig up the road to fix them — until it’s absolutely critical.

So don’t be surprised to see more sewer projects in the future.