Previous Line Work Suspected in Sewage Spill

A faulty sewer connection that forced untreated waste through the asphalt of a Laguna Beach intersection over the weekend and triggered closure of a nearby beach may have leaked into the surrounding earth for as long as five months before the problem was discovered and fixed, officials said Tuesday.

Citing a report that blamed the leak on sewer upgrades done in February, water-quality official Wayne Baglin urged the city to conduct soil testing beneath Gaviota Drive and Oak Street. Baglin, chairman of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, also criticized the city for its handling of the problem over the weekend, saying the city moved too slowly and could be subject to $10,000 in fines as a result.

“It was upsetting,” said Baglin, who lives in Laguna Beach. “I was expecting the city to take care of this quickly. I wasn’t expecting the city to drop the ball and have to close the beach. That didn’t have to happen.”

Steve May, the city’s director of engineering and sewer services, confirmed Tuesday that the leak was probably caused by work done five months ago, when the city placed special liners within its sewer mains. However, May said the extent of contamination has yet to be determined. The city has contacted the Orange County Health Care Agency for direction on handling the problem, he said, and testing may be done on the site.

May also defended the city’s response to the leak, which was reported about 3 p.m. Saturday and stopped about 6:30 p.m. Considering that the leak occurred on the weekend, when his department does not maintain a staff and employees must be called in for emergencies, May said, “I think the response was pretty good for the resources we had.”

The leak caused a 6-foot by 3-foot section of road asphalt to rise in a mound almost a foot high, then crack open, sending about 50 gallons of foul-smelling waste water streaming into a storm drain, then to a nearby beach. Although residents and city workers tried to contain the pool with sandbags, the rising tide eventually breached the barrier. The beach between Anita and Brooks streets was ordered closed by Orange County health officials.

The beach was reopened Tuesday, a health agency spokeswoman said, after water tests done Sunday and Monday revealed no harmful bacteria.

According to a city report on the episode, the source of the leak was a special liner inside municipal sewer lines. The liner, made of a material similar to fiberglass, is designed to keep older sewer lines from leaking. It was installed by a contractor Feb. 23.

For the liner to work correctly though, holes known as “cookies” must be punched through it where lines from businesses and homes meet the main sewer, officials said. In this case, the report said no such hole was punched for a 4-inch line that connected the main to a building at Pacific Coast Highway and Oak Street.

May said he believes that more water than usual was funneled through the line Saturday, causing the leak.

But a local environmental activist said he feared tens of thousands of gallons of waste water had leaked into the soil.

“The city has a ‘Jaws’ mentality,” said Roger von Butow of the group, Clean Water Now! “They don’t want to do or say anything that’s going to bring negative attention.”

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Anatomy of a Leak

Missing ‘Cookie’ Causes Sewer Leak

Raw sewage caused a Laguna Beach intersection to ripple after hundreds of gallons of untreated waste leaked into the ground from an unconnected pipeline. The accident happened because “cookies” were not cut into a fiberglass liner used to seal an aging Laguna Beach Source: Orange County Health Care Agency

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times