A resident called the city to report the spill, which involved sewer flowing out of a manhole in the street, City Manager Bill Andrew said this morning.

"We were out on the scene within an hour and basically had it taken care of by the afternoon," he said. "... There is a creek near (the manhole), but most of (the spill) soaked into the ground, it's so dry. We did get some flow into the creek, so we're having to monitor (it)."

The spill was reported at 9 a.m. Monday and cleaned up by 1 p.m.

"We stopped what was causing the backup and ... we're doing the stream monitoring," Andrew said.

The backup occurred just as the city had finished running a motorized camera through seven miles of sewer lines to check for potential problems.

"We did find there were quite a few root masses that get into the lines and that's probably especially true because of the drought," Andrew said. "The root masses get in there and not only do they block the line itself, but they will collect grease and things like that."