Sewage spill in Laguna Beach

[Scott & Lai 12]

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-of...66-sewage-beach

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Laguna shore still closed after sewage spill

Sewage spewed out of pump station this morning into storm drain that empties at Bluebird Beach, officials say.

By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ, VIK JOLLY and KELLI HART

The Orange County Register

Comments 31| Recommend 2

LAGUNA BEACH –A separated pipe at a city sewage pump station sent 500,000 gallons of sewage into an adjacent street and into the beach for about eight hours today, forcing officials to close both because of the waste.

Authorities believe the spill will keep portions of the beach closed for at least two days.

Shortly after 10 a.m., officials said they were able to cut off the flow of waste that was making its way down to the ocean since 2 a.m. City crews are still working to repair the pipe and find out what caused it to seperate.

Four miles of coastline remain shut down, including Bluebird beach and adjacent beaches after an alarm this morning sounded at the pumping station after 2 a.m., warning officials of a potential problem, said Sgt. Jason Kravetz of the Laguna Beach Police Department.

City work crews discovered the pump station, located on Galen Drive, flooded with sewage that was seeping into the street, according to a statement from City Manager Ken Frank.

"There's just a lot of it in the area," Kravetz said.

The waste from the station was flowing into a storm drain that drains into Bluebird Beach, making officials initially close down about a half-mile portion of the beach. By 8:30 a.m., officials decided to close down about two miles of beaches in both the north and south directions of the coastline because of health concerns.

After pumping out some of the sewage from the station early this morning, crews discovered a pipe on Glenneyre Street, between Bluebird Canyon Road and Calliope Street, that was separated, making sewage leak out.

The sewage flowed into the ocean for eight hours, until crews were able to establish a bypass at about 10 a.m., Kravetz said. The bypass allows the waste to be processed at the station. Crews will now begin to fix the separated pipe.

The constant stream of waste spewed out onto Glenneyre Street, created a putrid smell similar to rotten eggs hanging in the air directly near the broken pipe and several streets over.

Authorities have not been able to establish why the pipe separated.

Officials from the city's public works, police, fire departments have called in extra personnel to deal with the closures and the sewage, he said. Officials from City Hall, as well as council members, have also responded to the station.

"All the city crews are working on it. No one is taking it lightly," Kravetz said.

Officials have not yet been able to measure how much sewage has made its way to the ocean, Kravetz said.

Personnel from the Orange County Health Care Agency are also at the scene to assist, he said.

City officials have closed down all of Galen Drive, as well as Glenneyre Street, from Bluebird Canyon Drive to Calliope Street, Kravetz said. Bluebird Canyon Road is closed from South Coast Highway to Glenneyre Street.

Coast Highway remains open but commuters with a possible alternate route should consider using it, according to the statement from Frank, the city manager.

In April, approximately 58,000 gallons of sewage spilled on Bluebird and surrounding beaches after trash began spouting onto Coast Highway from a manhole cover between Diamond and Center streets.

The culprit behind the spill was a metal clamp around an air-relief valve that had deteriorated, but the pipe that runs under Coast Highway didn't fail, the city said. A hole opened in the main sewer line that transports raw sewage from central Laguna Beach to a treatment plant in Laguna Canyon.

At one point, early on in the April spill when some sewage flowed through storm drains to the shore, it closed all beaches from Cress Street to Rockledge Road for at least 24 hours, including Agate, Woods Cove and Bluebird beaches.

The price tag for repairs was more than $250,000.

Laguna Beach's aging sewer system has been the focus of public works improvements for the past seven years, with the city spending more than $15 million on improvements.

City Manager Ken Frank said then that the April spill was the first to cause a beach closure since November 2006 and only the second beach closure caused by sewage spilling from city lines since the Bluebird Canyon landslide in June 2005.

Joan St. Clair, who lives just a few feet from the pumping station, said this morning she woke up to what seemed to be the smell of sulfur in the morning. When she saw police standing near her home, she began to bake muffins for them.

"They just stand around there all day, I want to give them something to eat," she said.

Her home is about 50 years old and over the years, she and her family have had to put in new lights, new wiring, new heating and new plumbing. She said she feels the city should do the same.

"It was old," she said. "Laguna is old. They're going to have to start replacing (the infrastructure). I think they're doing the best they can."

We thought we'd have to go home early at my work. Around 9:30, I smelled a faint odor of eggs, like someone was cooking. But it gradually got stronger, smelling like rotten eggs, and filled the whole office. We don't have windows that open, but even if we did, it wouldn't have helped. Building maintenance said that the next building was also filled with the fumes, and so was the air around the buildings. The fumes were thick; we could taste and practically feel them. Half an hour later, it finally went away. A few hours later, we heard about the sewage leak in Laguna Beach, which is about 13 miles from our office

[natty bumppo 297]

surfs up !!

[HAL 9000 96]

Hydrogen sulfide... nasty stuff! A couple of years back a city in Mexico had its sewer system nearly explode because of a backup.

Be careful... its poisonous.

[sereia 0]

Gross. Guess I won't be heading there anytime soon. Luckily I don't smell anything and I'm a lot closer than 13 miles away!

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

just like someone in the middle east farting raises gas prices, this will make csc slow down.

[IAMX 3,055]

That oughta teach those USCIS workers to go so slow..

Edited October 30, 2008 by SRVT

[SpiritAlight 1]

Poor Laguna Beach....

I have a friend that lives there.

Funny she didn't mention it last night.

[Jasman0717 9]

surfs up !!

Kawabunga Dude