Sewage Release Closes Part of Newport Bay

Part of Newport Bay was closed to swimmers and divers Monday because of a sewage spill from a leaking pump station for boats, authorities said.

Of the 32 beach closures caused by sewage contamination in the county this year, Monday’s was the third involving a broken vessel pump-out station, Orange County Health Care Agency officials said.

Authorities did not know when the leak began at the Lido Marina Village station or how much sewage was released. Newport Beach officials said they learned about the break Monday morning.

“A boater began to use it and noticed there was sewage coming out under the dock, which suggested a break in the line,” said Tony Melum, director of the city’s harbor resources division.

The water from Lido Island Bridge to 300 feet up the bay along the Lido Marina Village docks is off limits pending water-quality testing, said Monica Mazur, spokeswoman for the Health Care Agency. Contact with tainted water could cause gastrointestinal, upper respiratory, eye, ear, nose or throat infections.

Melum said the station, one of 23 in the bay, is 8 or 9 years old and scheduled for replacement. He said the stations are checked twice a week, but the spill could have started over the weekend--something that one local activist said is disgusting.

“It makes me sick,” said Bob Caustin, founder of Defend the Bay. “On a weekend like this last weekend, it was beautiful and sunny. Kids, people, adults go swimming off Lido Island, which is a stone’s throw from the area we’re talking about.”

The pump-out stations should have systems that shut down the lines if they malfunction, he said.

Closures in Dana Point harbor in January and August were caused by similar line breaks at pump-out stations.