Outage Triggered Sewage Spill, Closing of O.C. Beach

The power outage that caused blackouts from Canada to Mexico last weekend also triggered a spill of between 60,000 to 100,000 gallons of sewage in the Santa Margarita Water District and forced county officials to close a portion of Doheny Beach.

The spill, which occurred when sewage lift pumps did not receive an electrical signal to move the sewage from its subterranean reservoir, flowed into the San Juan Creek but was stopped from entering the ocean by a sand berm.

As a precaution, the Orange County Health Care Agency asked the state Parks and Recreation Department to close about 400 feet of the beach.

“As far as we can tell this didn’t quite make it to the ocean, but we closed a portion of the beach because of a concern about sub-surface flow through the sand,” said Larry Honeybourne, of the Health Care Agency. “The flow occurred 10 miles inland, but our policy here is to be very conservative about public health.”

How many days the stretch of beach will remain closed depends on whether the spill actually reaches the water. Also, should the sand berm erode, the county may close more of the beach in the following days.

“The pathogens are being degraded, diluted and are dying off right now, but it takes some time for that to happen,” Honeybourne said. “We’ve taken samples yesterday and today and we’ll have preliminary results by tomorrow.”

Minor sewage leaks due to the power outage also were reported by two other water districts. Newport Beach had a spill of 100 gallons, and the El Toro Water District had a 750-gallon leak near Leisure World, Honeybourne said.

Neither spill reached the ocean.

Another county beach in Dana Point Harbor, called Baby Beach because parents often bring their children to the calm waters, remains closed for reasons unconnected to the power outage.

Routine monitoring of the water found that bacteria levels exceeded the legal state standard for swimming; officials closed the beach last Wednesday. Officials do not know what caused the bacteria levels to rise but are monitoring the situation daily.