With temperatures rising thanks to a looming heat wave, beaches remained closed in Long Beach and parts of Seal Beach on Wednesday thanks to a sewage spill near downtown Los Angeles that drained into the ocean, but sanitation officials said the leak has been stopped.
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KPCC reports that Long Beach officials first learned of the spill yesterday in the late afternoon, and the decision to close all Long Beach beaches was ordered by the city’s acting health officer, Dr. Mauro Torno.
Paddling out at Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Sunset Beach or Palos Verdes is probably inadvisable until authorities confirm a massive sewage spill in the Los Angeles River hasn’t tained the water.
Kerr said the rupture led to 3,000 gallons gallons of sewage flowing out per minute.
Long Beach is home to the United States’ second-busiest port after Los Angeles.
Long Beach health officials banned swimming and surfing at all beaches until water tests show there’s no bacterial contamination in the water. But by Tuesday, officials estimated about 2.4 million gallons had spewed out of the pipe. Beaches in Long Beach have been shut down after a sewage spill that began near down…
A sewage spill that forced officials to shut coastal waters in Long Beach was extended, closing shore areas in Orange County on Wednesday.
Warning signs and flags were up along the closed beaches and lifeguards shooed away some visitors. “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?”
“It doesn’t look like we’re impacted by the spill”, Kerr said.
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“Nobody went out”, owner Michael Pless said.
