Los Angeles Beaches Remain Closed After 2.4 Million-Gallon Sewage Leak

Eric Chaney
Published: July 21,2016 



 
Several Southern California beaches remained closed Thursday after more than two million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the streets of Los Angeles earlier this week.
A buried pipe collapsed near the downtown area on Monday, causing a blockage and spill of 2.4 million gallons of foul-smelling sewage that poured into streets and storm drains that feed into the Los Angeles River.
"It's disgusting," one resident told KABC. "I hope I'll be able to sleep with that smell. It's really bad."

In this Tuesday, July 19,2016 file photo, a sign is posted at Alamitos Beach warning of the dangers of sewage-contaminated water in Long Beach, Calif. There is no sign that a huge sewage spill in downtown Los Angeles reached the ocean 20 miles away, but the waters off Long Beach and parts of neighboring Seal Beach will remain closed at least until another round of tests comes back clean on Thursday, July 21,2016. The first sample taken showed no excessive levels of bacteria, Nelson Kerr of the Long Beach health department said Wednesday.
(Steve McCrank/The Daily Breeze via AP)

Nelson Kerr, a Long Beach health official, told SF Gate that the size of the spill makes it “unlikely that none of it got to the end of the river,” which empties into Long Beach Harbor 20 miles downstream.
About 4 miles of coastline in Long Beach and a mile in neighboring Seal Beach have been closed even though initial testing revealed no excessive levels of bacteria, Nelson Kerr of the Long Beach Health Department told the Associated Press.
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"It doesn't look like we're impacted by the spill," said Kerr in the AP report. "This initial round of testing looks really good, for the most part."
Health officials must record two consecutive days of test results showing the beaches are safe before they can be reopened, SF Gate also reported, which makes for a lot of disappointed beachgoers.
“My little sister, she wanted to come to the beach forever, the whole summer,“ Riverside County resident Francisco Aleman told KABC-TV via the AP. “She gets here and it’s like, you can’t get in, so what’s the point, you know?”
Officials said the top of the 5-foot sewer pipe, installed in 1929, collapsed, sending debris into the pipe. The clog then caused the sewage to overflow.
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Crews managed to contain, divert or vacuum at least 750,000 gallons of the spill. The leak was initially capped Monday night, but another rupture occurred during repairs.
It was finally stopped Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported, and sanitation workers built an above-ground bypass system. Crews are expected to complete repairs by late Thursday.
"This happening is just a part of the maintenance system,” Adel Hagekhalil, assistant director of Los Angeles Sanitation, told the Times. “Something grows old, you have to repair it or replace it."
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