Beach in Laguna May Reopen Soon : City Won’t Be Penalized for Sewage Spill, Officials Indicate

A strip of Laguna Beach, closed after a raw sewage spill, could reopen as soon as Wednesday afternoon if test results from water samples taken Monday morning show there is no danger to people, a county official said.

“We’re all beach lovers. We want to see the beach reopened as soon as possible,” said Robert Merryman, director of the county Health Care Agency’s environmental health division, which ordered the beach closed on Sunday.

Merryman and David Barker, a senior engineer for the state Regional Water Quality Control Board, said officials are not contemplating enforcement action against the city because Sunday’s spill at Sleepy Hollow beach, just down the coast from Main Beach, was caused by a power outage, not negligence.

“It was just an accident,” Merryman said. “The city of Laguna Beach acted very responsibly.”

Still, city officials acknowledged that such spills might be avoided if emergency generators were available at sewage pumping stations.

The stations pump sewage to treatment facilities.

“That’s an option, but it’s extremely expensive,” said Terry Brandt, the city’s director of municipal services.

Reliable backup power systems in pump stations could possibly have prevented more than a million gallons of raw sewage from spilling into the ocean off Laguna Beach in 1988 as a result of power outages, Brandt said.

Ideally, the city would like all of its pumping stations to be equipped with generators that automatically kick in when power goes out, Brandt said. But such systems would cost $50,000 to $100,000 apiece to install and, in some cases, mean totally replacing pump stations.

Mobile generators, which cost about $20,000, can be trucked to a pumping station when there is a power outage, Brandt said.

“I think it’s something we should look into as a possible mitigating measure,” City Councilman Robert F. Gentry said.

A reliable backup power source would prevent raw sewage in the system at the time of a power outage from flowing into the sea, Brandt said.

At present, only two of the city’s 23 pumping stations have generators, Brandt said. “You try to put generators in when you rebuild or build a new pump station,” he said.

The city’s pump stations have been in service an average of 30 years.

Sunday, July 24, 30,000-40,000 gallons of raw sewage. About 400 yards of beach near Sleepy Hollow closed.

July, 1987, Cleo Street Beach was closed because of a spill.

May, 1988, one million gallons of raw sewage flowed offshore. Mile-long stretch of beach closed for two days (outfall line off Broadway).