Sewage Spill Closes 600 Feet of Beach
- Share via
County health officials closed 600 feet of beach along the Newport Beach-Huntington Beach border Wednesday after learning that a fast-food restaurant had spilled sewage into local waterways.
Less than 300 gallons of sewage leaked Tuesday night from a grease-clogged line at an El Pollo Loco on Harbor Boulevard in Costa Mesa. It flowed into a storm drain that leads to a channel that flows into the Santa Ana River, which empties into the ocean, said Monica Mazur, spokeswoman for the county Health Care Agency.
Three-hundred feet on either side of the river mouth will be closed until tests show that the water is safe. Swimming in sewage-tainted water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea; eye, ear, nose and throat infections; and viral diseases such as hepatitis.
The closure is the 25th time this year that a stretch of Orange County’s 42-mile coastline has been declared off-limits, Mazur said.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
In Season 2 of “Crimes of the Times,” host Christopher Goffard revisits one of the longest and most bizarre murder trials in U.S. history.
On this week’s bonus, Madison McGhee and Jake Deptula share some of their more controversial takes on today’s true crime beat.
In this episode, Sammy Roth speaks with geography professor James McCarthy, who’s studied how authoritarianism and environmental destruction can be deeply intertwined.
