However, officials said a longer stretch of neighboring shoreline remained closed in Long Beach. They said after receiving satisfactory test results, beachgoers will be allowed to swim.
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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. Water samples taken from Long Beach on Tuesday showed bacteria levels that exceeded California public health standards but still at levels too low to require a closure had the sewage spill not occurred, said Long Beach environmental health operations Keith Allen.
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.she gets here and it’s like, you can’t get in, so what’s the point, you know?” “Officials will wait for the results of a second test from Wednesday before they decide to reopen beaches to swimmers”.
“It doesn’t look like we’re impacted by the spill”, he said.
Crews managed to contain, divert or vacuum at least 750,000 gallons and the rest flowed into the river, officials said.
Sewage warnings aren’t unusual for beaches at the end of the Los Angeles River, a mostly concrete channel that runs 51 miles through the massive industrial and urban regions of Los Angeles County to Long Beach.
LA Sanitation works to bypass a sewage line which overflowed into the LA River and caused the closure of beaches in Long Beach and Seal Beach Tuesday.
During storms in 1998, more than 30 million gallons of sewage spilled. An estimated 750,000 gallons were contained or vacuumed up, but some of the rest may have reached Long Beach harbour. Initial samples were clean and didn’t show any signs of sewage, he said.
Seal Beach’s coastline has been closed from the San Gabriel River to the Anaheim Bay Breakwater, according to Orange County health officials.
The cause of the failed pipe has not been determined.
“This is an old sewer, an aging sewer that was planned to be repaired, ” Adel Hagekhalil, assistant director of city sanitation, said Tuesday.
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In Long Beach, officials have closed ocean-facing coastal beaches. “Seal Beach’s next test results may be known about noon today”.
