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. Although about 750,000 gallons of sewage were captured by sanitation crews, some of it spilled into the Los Angeles River, carrying it to the ocean in Long Beach.
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Officials say they’ve stopped the overflow of sewage from a broken pipe but not before up to 1.5 million gallons flowed into the Los Angeles River and on to the ocean.
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.
Warning signs and flags were up and lifeguards shooed way some visitors.
The pipe rupture 20 miles north near downtown Los Angeles spilled 2.4 million gallons of sewage.
A sewer pipe collapsed in Boyle Heights, releasing the sewage along with trash and other junk that flows through the drainage system. On Tuesday morning, the city of Long Beach started testing water quality but hasn’t made those results public, so there’s no way to know if the water is contaminated.
Nelson Kerr, of the Long Beach city health department, told AFP that swimming in those areas was expected to be off-limits until at least Thursday.
The closure was a financial hit for M&M Surfing School of Seal Beach, which had to cancel classes for 70 students at a loss of $85 each.
“Nobody went out”, owner Michael Pless said. I have people from England, Sweden.
“Typically with a sewage spill it would be a lot higher, but we did sample fairly early in the morning yesterday”, Allen said.
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The cause of the collapse wasn’t clear.
