Sewage Spill Closes 600 Feet of Beach

Orange County health officials closed 600 feet of shoreline because the water there may have been contaminated by raw sewage, authorities said Monday.

The closure, 300 feet up the coast and down the coast from Bluebird Canyon Drive, marks the third time this year that an Orange County beach has been off limits to swimmers and surfers because of a sewage spill, said Monica Mazur, spokeswoman for the county Health Care Agency. Last year, sewage spills closed county beaches a record 40 times.

Tree roots blocked a pipe near Rimrock Canyon and Temple Hills Drive, sending an estimated 5,200 gallons of raw waste out of a manhole cover and into a storm drain that emptied on the beach, authorities said. Workers used berms to recapture the waste, but Mazur said no one knows whether sewage seeped into the ocean before the berms were built.

The area will be off limits for 72 hours, she said.