Spill Caused by Outage Keeps Beaches Closed

Beaches north of the popular Aliso Pier remained closed Thursday after a power outage caused 85,000 gallons of raw sewage to flow into the ocean.

County health officials said the waters along about 2,000 feet of beachfront will remain closed until test results for possible bacterial contamination are confirmed, possibly today.

The spill occurred Wednesday when the outage shut down a Moulton Niguel Water District pumping station shortly after 7 a.m., allowing untreated waste to flow into Aliso Creek for about an hour, district officials said.

Backup systems also failed to contain the overflow, said Mike Dunbar, a spokesman for the South Coast Water District. A backup generator at the pump station malfunctioned, causing the waste to be routed to a waste-treatment center.

“There we have two smaller pumps that could have taken care of the problem,” Dunbar said. “But debris from the recent storms clogged one, and the other couldn’t handle the sewage flow by itself. When things go wrong, they seem to go wrong all at once.”

Water district employees reporting for work discovered the spill and reported the incident to county health officials, who closed beaches for 1,000 feet on either side of Aliso Creek.

“It was a routine precautionary measure,” said Steven Wong, county assistant director of environmental health.

Health officials took water samples near Aliso Creek and are awaiting test results.

“We won’t be able to make any decision (on reopening the beach) before Friday,” Wong said.

Aliso Beach, which was shut down three times in 1990 by sewage spills, was not affected by spills in 1991.