Swimming Banned After Sewage Leak in Harbor
County health officials banned swimming in a portion of Dana Point Harbor on Thursday after a leaking marine sewage pumping station was discovered.
The leak was reported after passersby noticed a discoloration in the water about 10:30 a.m.
Officials immediately closed the pump station, which is used by boaters to dispose of untreated sewage, said Monica Mazur, a spokeswoman for the county Health Care Agency.
The cause of the leak was a hole in a flexible pipe leading from the pump to the dock, Mazur said. The size of the spill was unknown.
The station is near the harbor’s west basin guest docks. Health officials took water samples to test.
Swimming will remain prohibited, including divers working on boats, pending test results.
In January, rainfall caused the closure of a three-quarter-mile stretch of nearby Doheny State Beach because of a 2,000-gallon spill of barely treated sewage.
The spill was caused by an equipment malfunction near the Southeast Regional Reclamation Authority’s plant in Dana Point.
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