LAGUNA BEACH : Sewage Spill Closes Part of Aliso Beach

A stretch of beach in the south part of town was closed indefinitely after a broken sewer line dumped an estimated 85,000 gallons of raw sewage into the ocean just off Aliso Beach.

The cracked pipeline was discovered at about 5 p.m. Wednesday near the sixth and seventh holes of Aliso Creek Golf Course, and the sewage drifted toward the ocean in Aliso Creek, according to Michael Dunbar, assistant general manager of the South Coast Water District. The pipeline was repaired by 8:30 p.m., but representatives of the county health department closed the beaches as a precautionary measure, Dunbar said.

Dunbar said he did not know what caused the pipe to break.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “The pipe is 20 years old, which is not an old one by most standards.”

The pipe is made of a refined plastic mortar, which was “state of the art in those days,” Dunbar said. It had been scheduled to be replaced with an iron pipe “within two or three years.”

“Because of this accident, we’ll accelerate that schedule. It will be replaced within the next six to nine months,” Dunbar said.

It was the fourth time that the same stretch of beach has been closed this year because of sewage problems, and the same area was closed several times last year, Dunbar said.

“Unfortunately, Aliso Creek is the lowest spot in the area and gets the burden of everything that happens.”

The pipeline that broke Wednesday carries sewage from the Dana Point and South Laguna areas to a treatment plant just inland of the golf course, Dunbar said. When a break occurs, the sewage bubbles up from underground and into the creek.

The stretch of beach that is closed runs from Camel Point south of Aliso Pier north to Treasure Island.