An 11-mile stretch of Santa Monica Bay remained closed for a fourth day because of a massive sewage spill, but officials said most of the beaches will reopen this morning.
And environmentalists led by Heal the Bay called Wednesday on the county sanitation district to retrofit all pumping stations with underground storage facilities that would capture leaking sewage that would otherwise flow into streets, flood control channels, the beach and the ocean.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has ordered sanitation officials to prepare a detailed report on how to prevent a repeat of Sunday's spill -- the largest in a decade.
And an official with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board confirmed Wednesday that the agency will be investigating the incident, although he declined to give details or possible penalties.
Calls for better pumps and warning systems have also come from leaders of some beach cities after more than 2 million gallons of raw sewage spilled from a Manhattan Beach pumping plant after an apparent power failure. As much as 100,000 gallons flowed onto beaches, officials estimated.
"There's no reason that a power outage should cause this type of spillage," said Manhattan Beach Mayor Mitch Ward. "We don't want this to happen again because the beaches and ocean as well as the environment here in Manhattan Beach are precious."
A series of electrical snafus caused the station to shut down and sewage to back up. An alarm system designed to alert sanitation officials of such a problem failed.
Ward reserved his harshest criticism for the malfunctioning telephonic alarm system.
The mayor said the system was down for 28 hours from the time of the spill. That system would have notified authorities that a pumping station on 27th Street had lost power.
The telephone carrier, Verizon, confirmed through a spokesman that it was investigating the problem. Verizon believes the line was down for five hours initially, went back into service and then failed again for an undetermined period, said spokesman Jon Davies.
Ward, who also serves on the county sanitation board, rejected the idea of building catch basins, which he said were not realistic -- or cost effective.
"With the number of redundant systems there is no reason to dig a hole to address the spillage after the fact," Ward said.
