Ice skates in the bay during an atmospheric river storm on January 5th. A kayaker discovered raw sewage beneath the seafood restaurant last month. The restaurant closed early and called a plumber. Photo credit: Kelly Sullivan
A kayaker paddling along the Berkeley Marina recently noticed something worrying and quite disgusting. Untreated sewage appeared to be dripping into the San Francisco Bay below the Skates on the Bay restaurant.
The kayaker reported the sighting to the San Francisco Baykeeper pollution hotline, a nonprofit environmental organization, which shared the information with the City of Berkeley.
The city confirmed the leak as raw sewage on April 13, and by the end of the day the restaurant, which stands on pillars in the bay and is known for its panoramic views, had fixed the problem, city spokesman Matthai Chakko said.
It is not clear how long the pipe was leaking.
“City environmental health personnel were able to confirm a slow, steady flow as of 2:00 p.m. Thursday, 4/13/23,” Chakko said. The restaurant closed early and called a plumber, he said.
A cap on the end of a pipe had fallen off.
“The flow was completely stopped by 9 p.m. and the plumber returned the next morning to access the lines at low tide and complete the repair by boat,” Chakko said. “The missing end cap was replaced with a new cap and the restaurant was cleared to reopen.”
Chakko added, “As a side note, the plumber examined the rest of the underside of the restaurant to determine if there were any other plumbing problems in preparation for a planned major remodel.
Berkeleyside has reached out to Landry’s, the owners of Skates, and have yet to receive a response. A Skates executive, who said he could not be identified by name, said the restaurant had no idea the sewer pipe was broken until it was contacted by the city and that the repairs were made immediately.
Baykeeper attorney Nicole Sasaki said the organization’s hotline, which can be reached by email or phone, works exactly as it’s supposed to.
“Skates on the Bay quickly repaired their broken sewer line so that the restaurant’s raw sewage is no longer being dumped directly into the bay,” she said.
The working sewer pipe under the restaurant flows into the city’s sewage system, which then connects to the East Bay Municipal Water District’s (EBMUD) large “interceptor” pipes and on to the treatment plant near the Bay Bridge’s Oakland terminal.
Chakko said he believes sewage from the city’s few shops that are in or on the shore rarely enters the bay’s waters. Eileen White, executive officer of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which governs state and federal water pollution laws, echoed the same for the Bay Area.
“I don’t think it’s common for companies on the Bay to have septic issues, but all SSOs do [sanitary system overflows] that enter storm drains go into the bay [through gutters, streets, and soils]. SSOs are rampant and we are taking steps to reduce them.”
Berkeley reported the leak to the regional water board, an optional step. The incident was handled as it should be, White said, from a leak report to the city to an inspection and remediation. “That’s the way it’s supposed to work,” she said.
White said the impact of the skates’ leak should be minimal.
“Because the volume of the leak is such a small percentage of the volume of the bay and there is a lot of mixing in the bay, we don’t think there was any impact,” she said. “The bay is recovering quickly due to rapid mixing from wind and tides.”
It is impossible to know the condition of the sewage infrastructure on private property, since inspection is voluntary, with a few exceptions. Property owners may have old leaking sewers, known as private sewers, from their building to the municipal system, usually under roads, without being aware of it.
The main exception is the requirement that private sewer connections must be inspected and repaired if necessary prior to the sale of a property. This requirement, effective in 2011, applies to communities served by EBMUD’s sewage system, including Berkeley.
Another exception is the City of Richmond, which mandates sewer line inspections on private property. Baykeeper’s Sasaki believes the Richmond approach should be the norm.
“Cities should require businesses and homeowners to verify that the sewer pipes on their properties are working properly — which the City of Richmond is already doing — and also find ways to incentivize people to do the right thing,” Sasaki said .
“Without this requirement, there is no way to tell how many more businesses and households are unknowingly polluting our environment.”
