Several beaches in Los Angeles and Orange counties will remain closed to water activities today due to a raw sewage spill in the Dominguez Channel estimated at up to 8.5 million gallons.
On Saturday, the Orange County Health Care Agency expanded the ocean waters forbidden for swimming to include Seal Beach’s Surfside Beach and Huntington Beach’s Sunset Beach, health officials said.
The beaches around the ports in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Seal Beach had been closed since Friday after the California Office of Emergency Services reported the spill on Thursday, Dec. 30.
According to the City of Long Beach, the sewage spill originated in Carson and was caused by the failure of a 48-inch sewer main line.
Spill estimates range from 2 million to 4 million gallons on the low end to as high as 8.5 million gallons of untreated sewage, according to health officials.
The beaches will not reopen for swimming, surfing and other water-related activities until water quality levels meet acceptable standards, health officials said.
The City of Long Beach Health Department’s Water Quality inspection team will be testing the water on an ongoing basis.
Long Beach residents can find the results of ongoing water quality tests on the City’s website or by calling the Water Hotline at (562) 570-4199.
Sanitation crews were working in Los Angeles and Long Beach to clean up the impacted areas, officials in Los Angeles and Orange counties said.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn asked for a full investigation into how the sewage spill occurred.
“A sewage spill of this magnitude is dangerous and unacceptable and we need to understand what happened,” Hahn wrote in a statement released Friday. “The recent storm undoubtedly contributed to the spill but we need infrastructure that doesn’t fail when it rains. I am calling on L.A. County Sanitation Districts to do a full investigation into the cause of the spill and whether aging or faulty infrastructure was involved.”
Information about Orange County ocean, bay and harbor postings and closures can be obtained by calling (714) 433-6400 or at OCBeachinfo.com.
