Sewage Spill Shuts Beaches in Huntington, Newport
Several miles of shoreline in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach were closed Thursday after about 1,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled during a power failure at a Costa Mesa pump station.
Until further notice, beaches from the Talbert Channel to the Santa Ana River in Huntington Beach and from the Santa Ana River to Highland Street in Newport Beach are off-limits, according to the environmental health division of Orange County’s Health Care Agency. The division also warned swimmers and surfers that bacteria levels exceed standards as far south as Dana Point.
The spill occurred about 9 a.m. Thursday when an electrical line failed at a pump station near Canyon and Wilson streets in Costa Mesa, causing the untreated sewage to back up into a well at the station, then overflow into storm drains.
Gerald Vasquez, senior maintenance worker for the city’s sanitary district, said that when he arrived, he diluted the untreated sewage by pumping 10,000 gallons of water on it as it seeped into the storm drain.
A backup generator was brought in to get the pump station running.
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