About 5 miles of Southern California beaches remain closed due to a pipeline rupture that spilled sewage into the Los Angeles River.
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Update [11:30 a.m.]: Los Angeles Department of Public Works officials are now estimating that 2.4 million gallons of raw sewage have spilled from the broken pipe, according to City News Service.
But by Tuesday, officials estimated about 2.4 million gallons had spewed out of the pipe.
An Orange County health official said ocean samples taken off of the coast here have largely come back clean following Monday’s sewage spill that potentially sent bacteria southbound via the Los Angeles River.
Health officials are testing the water and expect lab results by Wednesday, Kerr said, noting that beaches could reopen by Thursday.
The pipe started leaking on Monday afternoon and despite efforts to fix it, the break worsened on today. Beaches in Long Beach have been shut down after a sewage spill that began near down. But until there’s confirmation the water is clean, maybe stick to land-based activities.
Crews managed to contain, divert or vacuum at least 750,000 gallons.
“This is an old sewer, an aging sewer that was planned to be repaired”, Adel Hagekhalil, assistant director of city sanitation, said Tuesday. “The bummer is I have people coming from all over the world. I had people flying in to meet me”.
“They didn’t get to surf but they got to play”, Pless said.
The pipe had been scheduled for replacement in two years. The spill in a mostly industrial area near Boyle Heights was stopped around 11 p.m., and cleanup efforts continued through the night, officials said.
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“It doesn’t look like we’re impacted by the spill”, Kerr said.
