Crews were working Thursday night to complete repairs to a cracked force main at the city’s West Beach Wastewater Pump Station in Ko Olina, according to the city’s Department of Environmental Services.

The 3- to 4-foot-long crack in the main reported Wednesday caused an estimated 1,000 gallons of raw sewage to spill for a few hours on the ground at the station, said Environmental Services Director Lori Kahi­kina. The main is in an area that is generally not accessible to the public. No sewage spilled into the ocean, and it was unknown what caused the crack, she said. Kahikina said the sewage was “trickling out of the ground” until crews could contain it.

“This did not affect the receding waters at all. It’s completely contained right there in the area on the ground. There was no storm drain nearby. Nothing could have possibly gone into the ocean,” Kahikina said.

Crews contracted by the city used a tanker and cesspool trucks to capture as much as possible of the flow upstream and redistribute it downstream. Kahikina said the force main, a pressurized pipe, is about 25 years old but that most mains have a life span of about 30 to 40 years. She said the department would probably hire a consultant to assess the main’s condition but did not have a cost estimate.

Kahikina said warning signs were not posted because the sewage did not affect the surrounding water. Ko Olina residents and businesses were asked Wednesday afternoon to conserve water until repairs were completed.

In January 2013 a sewer pipe at the pump station broke due to corrosion, Kahikina said.

She said it was determined that the corrosion was limited to an isolated part of the pipe and that it has been replaced.