Long Beach Coast Could Stay Closed Through Saturday After Sewage Spill
LONG BEACH (CBSLA.com) — Long Beach's coasts could be closed until at least Saturday after a 2.4 million-gallon sewage spill near downtown Los Angeles, even after Seal Beach reopened its coastline to swimmers and surfers Thursday.
The spill that occurred about 2 p.m. Monday at Sixth Street and Mission Road in Boyle Heights, sending sewage into the Los Angeles River.
The flow of sewage from the ruptured pipe was stopped Tuesday afternoon, but not before 2.4 million gallons spilled onto area streets and into the L.A. River. Officials with the Los Angeles Department of Public Works said about 750,000 gallons of the spilled sewage had been recaptured.
The water is still being tested twice daily in Long Beach, where all coastal beaches in the city were still closed as of Thursday afternoon, but Alamitos Bay, Colorado Lagoon and Mother's Beach were open. Officials don't expect the coastal beaches to re-open until at least Saturday.
Health officials in Long Beach said Wednesday that an initial round of testing came back mostly clean, but further tests showed that bacteria levels still had not dropped enough for the beaches to be reopened.
The Orange County Health Care Agency announced Thursday that water testing showed bacteria levels were within acceptable health standards, and the ocean in Seal Beach between the San Gabriel River Mouth and Anaheim Bay was re-opened.
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