Spill Shuts Beaches in Dana Point

For the second time in two weeks and just in time for spring break, a sewage spill has closed Dana Point beaches to swimmers and surfers.

The 960-gallon spill, deemed relatively small by the Orange County Health Care Agency, is being blamed on a line blockage at the Seaside Apartment Village about three miles upstream, said Monica Mazur, a supervising environmental specialist at the agency.

The spill was the 19th in Dana Point this year. Mazur said there is no pattern; the causes have varied from site to site.

“They’re in different places, and for different reasons,” she said. “It’s not like it’s all recurring at the same location.”

The latest spill occurred at least 1,000 feet up the coast from the luxurious Ritz-Carlton hotel, closing Salt Creek County Beach and Monarch Beach about 1,000 feet in each direction, Mazur said.

Mazur and Ritz officials said the hotel beachfront was not affected.

“We have two miles of beaches in front of the hotel, so there is plenty of beach and water access for guests,” hotel spokeswoman Lisa Poppin said. “The area that is closed off is just a small portion of the beach, and it’s so far north.”

Health agency inspectors were sampling the waters and hope to reopen the affected beaches by Thursday morning, Mazur said.

Beaches were closed in the same location from April 1 to 5, when about 700 gallons of sewage seeped from a blocked sewer line in Laguna Niguel, and flowed out of a manhole near South Peak Drive and Camino Del Avion.