El Morro Beach Area Closed After Diggers Ding Sewer Line

A small sewage spill closed a stretch of shoreline at Crystal Cove State Park near Laguna Beach on Tuesday. It’s the 18th time this year the ocean off Orange County has been tainted by untreated human waste.

Workers with the state Department of Parks and Recreation were conducting an archeological excavation at the El Morro Beach Mobile Home Park when they inadvertently nicked a sewer line. The 2 p.m. spill released 25 gallons of untreated sewage, which flowed to El Morro Beach, said Monica Mazur, spokeswoman for the county Health Care Agency.

Three-hundred feet of beach on either side of El Moro Creek is off-limits for swimming and diving.

Contact with the water could cause gastrointestinal, upper respiratory, eye, ear, nose or throat infections. Children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems are especially susceptible to pathogens found in human waste.