Some O.C. beaches to stay closed through Friday because of sewage spill
Four miles of coastline were contaminated when a pump failed in Laguna Beach, spilling 580,000 gallons of raw sewage into the ocean. The beaches could remain closed even after Friday, officials say.
Four miles of fouled Orange County coastline will remain closed to swimmers through Friday afternoon after 580,000 gallons of raw sewage gushed from a Laguna Beach pump station early Wednesday morning, local health officials said today.
Beaches from Crescent Bay to Camel Point, two miles north and south of the spill, were contaminated with waste. Monitors are expecting the first results from 15 to 20 water samples taken Wednesday to be available this afternoon, said Larry Honeybourne, program manager with the environmental division of the Orange County Health Care Agency.
"We need a couple days' worth of clean samples before we can open the locations," Honeybourne said. If bacteria levels remain unsafe, ocean water could remain off-limits through Saturday or later, he said.
The spill is the worst in the county in at least nine years. A failed clamp on a sewer main's air release valve caused 60,000 gallons of sewage to dirty Laguna Beach's shoreline in April.
Laguna Beach hired outside engineering company Dudek to evaluate what caused a 12-inch pipe to break sometime before 2 a.m. Wednesday, said City Manager Ken Frank. The engineers are expected to produce a report early next week.
One of the station's four pumps is working properly, one is partially working and the motors in the two other pumps burned out after Wednesday's sewage flood, Frank said. Those motors will be replaced by Sunday night.
A special bypass pump was installed Wednesday night as a backup measure; that pump is temporarily blocking Glenneyre Street through this afternoon.
Laguna Beach has spent more than $10 million to upgrade its sewer system in recent years, and planned to renovate the pump station in February. The city's hilly terrain can make maintenance of sewage infrastructure challenging, Honeybourne said. Frank described Wednesday's spill as "frustrating."
"It's still very disruptive to go to the beach and have signs say, 'The beach is closed, sewage spill,' " Frank said. "We want to make sure we take all the steps that we can possibly take to make the system as safe as possible."
Rosenblatt is a Times staff writer.
susannah.rosenblatt@latimes.com
