‘Never Going to Feel Safe’: California Neighborhood Flooded With Over 1 Million Gallons of Sewage

Knut Johnson, Partner at Singleton Schreiber, was featured by the San Francisco Chronicle in an article titled “Never going to feel safe’: California neighborhood flooded with over 1 million gallons of sewage,” published on May 12, 2026.

Johnson represents residents whose neighborhood was upended by a January sewer line rupture that allegedly released approximately 1.38 million gallons of untreated sewage into their community. The lawsuits allege that longstanding infrastructure failures, inadequate maintenance, and a delayed emergency response allowed the situation to spiral into something far worse than it should have been.

For the hundreds of residents affected, the consequences were deeply personal. Private wells fed by a shallow aquifer were contaminated, leaving families without clean water and facing the kind of uncertainty that does not show up in regulatory reports. The litigation takes aim at the systems and agencies responsible for maintaining the infrastructure that those residents depended on every day.

“Lake County knew for years that this system was failing,” said Johnson. “When that force main finally gave way, nearly 500 residents paid the price and many are still waiting for clean water today.”