Sewage Spill Closes 2 Miles of L.A. Beaches

Two miles of beaches on Santa Monica Bay were ordered closed Tuesday after an estimated 20,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled into Ballona Creek.

Los Angeles County health officials closed Venice Beach from the Marina del Rey entrance channel northwest to the extension of Ironsides Street, as well as Dockweiler State Beach between Ballona Creek and the extension of Sandpiper Street.

The beaches will not open until testing shows that bacteria levels meet safety standards, said Jonathan Fielding, acting director of public health and county health officer. That could happen today or later in the week.

The spill occurred early Tuesday after equipment failed at a Culver City pump station that handles 1.2 million gallons of sewage daily from Culver City and Los Angeles. Workers contained the spill about 4 a.m.

County health officials, however, did not learn about the spill until early afternoon, Fielding said. The beaches were ordered closed sometime between 1 and 2 p.m., he said.

Most people who swam at the beaches in the morning before the closings are unlikely to suffer health effects, Fielding said.

“I don’t think people need to be terribly concerned about this,” he said. But he added that some swimmers who were in the water a long time might experience a mild gastroenteritis or a mild skin infection, especially if they swam south of the channel, since swells move southward. Swimmers with symptoms should seek medical help, he said.

The spill occurred after a series of equipment failures at an underground pump station at Braddock Drive and Sawtelle Boulevard that helps move sewage to the Hyperion treatment plant.

One pump failed Sunday night, followed by a second pump, but workers helped avoid an overflow by transferring some sewage into pump trucks, said City Manager Jerry Fulwood of Culver City. Crews rushed to repair the two pumps Monday night, while area residents slept and toilet flushing was in a lull. But then the third pump failed, causing sewage to overflow from the station onto the street and then to Ballona Creek.

The pump was fixed by dawn. All three pumps were working late Tuesday afternoon, and at least two have been repaired permanently, Fulwood said.

Fielding said he is concerned that the county health department was not contacted earlier so that it could close nearby beaches. Fulwood said the delay occurred because crews were focused on halting the spill swiftly and preventing further problems.

Tuesday’s spill appears to be the largest on the county’s beaches since more than 2 million gallons of sewage entered Santa Monica Bay on Jan. 15 after equipment failed at a Manhattan Beach pumping station. Although that spill was far larger, sewage was filtered through sand before it reached the ocean, while the Culver City spill went directly into the water, Fielding said.

More information is available from the county beach closure hot line, (800) 525-5662, or at www.lapublichealth.org/eh.