1,000 Needles Wash Ashore

More than 1,000 hypodermic needles washed ashore at Huntington Beach Thursday afternoon, forcing the closure of more than 2 miles of shoreline, authorities said.

The first needles were discovered by a city lifeguard about 3:30 p.m. Soon they were surfacing hundreds at a time, prompting county health officials to close the beach.

By nightfall, the closure stretched north from the state beach at Magnolia Avenue to just beyond the city pier, including an area that was already subject to health warnings because of high bacteria levels in the ocean that have plagued Huntington Beach since midsummer.

Steve Seim, the city’s marine safety captain, expressed dismay at the number of needles. “It was so massive,” he said. “They were coming in clumps” of several hundred needles.

Officials were unable identify the type of needle or their source. Larry Honeybourne, chief of the county health agency’s water quality section, said they did not appear to have been used.