Flushed latex gloves may have caused sewage spill

Latex gloves flushed down the toilet are the suspected cause of a sewage spill at Timber Cove on Wednesday morning.

A restroom on the Timber Cove pier overflowed onto the beach at about 9 a.m., said Dennis Cocking, spokesman for the South Tahoe Public Utility District.

Fast action by maintenance staff at Timber Cove, who built a sand berm around the spill and rerouted the sewage into a sand-oil separator, likely prevented the spill from reaching Lake Tahoe, Cocking said.

Crews from the utility district, as well as representatives from El Dorado County Environmental Management and the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, were on scene shortly after the spill to assess the situation, Cocking said.

"There is no threat to public health and safety," he said.

Latex gloves are among the items - including grease and diapers - that often are responsible for sewer backups and should not be flushed down the toilet, Cocking said.

"Ninety percent of spills in collection systems are because people are putting things down the sewer they're not supposed to," he said.