Spill discovered in creek; same site where Furtado Dairy is
accused of dumping last spring
Gilroy – State and county water inspectors have identified another wastewater spill in a creek east of Gilroy, the same site where 240,000 gallons of cow manure and other harmful farm wastes were dumped last spring.
The volume or source of the spill in Alamias Creek has not yet been determined, but numerous pools of dark brown water filled with algae indicate it took place after the last rains in April, according to Paul Thomas, a water quality engineer with the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
“You could definitely see where the water line had been a couple inches higher before it soaked into the ground,” said Thomas, who visited the site Tuesday morning. “We investigated the upstream area but it was hard to determine what the exact source was.”
The wastewater could have come from irrigation run-off from farms that lie upstream of the creek, Thomas said. He also did not rule out the 80-acre Furtado Dairy farm as a possible source.
Owner Manuel Furtado already faces criminal charges for allegedly discharging water in excess of his permit and dumping 20,000 gallons of water polluted with waste from the farm’s 650 cows. The charges came last June, a few weeks after water district officials received a tip that water polluted with cow manure and other farm waste had been dumped into the creek.
Furtado denied responsibility for the most recent spill.
“No, I was not aware of it and it’s not from the dairy,” he said, declining further comment.
His lawyer, Craig Van Keulen, blamed irrigation run-off from a “row cropper” to the north. He also attributed the 240,000 gallon spill last year to run-off from surrounding farms. He could not provide a name for the adjacent farmer, but said such run-off is “very typical of agriculture.”
“He didn’t do anything wrong,” Van Keulen said of the adjacent farmer. “(He) was irrigating his row crops and that water ran across the (dairy) property and into the creek. All that property drains from the east to the west into the creek. … What happened today is an indication of what probably happened when the first (spill) took place.”
On Tuesday, an investigator with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office inspected the site.
Assistant District Attorney John Fioretta declined to comment on the matter, saying only that it remains under investigation.
The last spill in Alamias Creek was discovered in May 2005. The water, full of cow manure and compounds harmful to fish and humans, traveled 4.5 miles through the Alamias, stopping just short of the Llagas Creek headwaters south of Pacheco Pass Highway. Environmental officials at the time said the spill was hazardous to the endangered steelhead trout, which migrates through the Llagas, and a potential threat to the groundwater basin.
The California Department of Fish and Game is investigating the latest spill to determine the extent of damage.
“Some (of the discharge) may have gotten to the Pajaro River,” said Bud Leland, the DFG’s assistant deputy administrator for spill prevention and response. “We’re looking into it to see what sort of environmental impact it will have. It will have some impact, but we don’t yet know how much.”
