Sewage Spill Closes Area at Aliso Beach

LAGUNA BEACH —  A construction accident caused 9,000 gallons of raw sewage to pour into the ocean off Aliso State Beach Wednesday, forcing authorities to close 200 yards of shoreline to the public, city officials said.

The stretch of beach north of the Aliso Pier will be off-limits to swimmers for two to three days while county health officials test the bacteria level in the ocean, said Terry Brandt, director of city municipal services.

Brandt said Wednesday’s incident was not related to the series of sewage spills that plagued the seaside community last year, including a 900,000-gallon spill at the same beach last June.

“This has nothing to do with the problems we’ve had in the past,” Brandt said. “This was just a stupid error.”

The city official said Wednesday’s spill was caused by a heavy-equipment operator conducting grading activities at a city park that is under construction.

An employee of the Gorham Co. knocked loose a manhole cover, allowing enough dirt and rock to fall into an eight-inch sewage line to block the pipe.

A few blocks away from the construction site, the raw sewage began streaming from a manhole cover on the street at Coast Highway near Wesley Drive.

Shortly after noon, a resident noticed the sewage flowing down the curb into Aliso Creek about 300 yards from the ocean, and notified water officials, said Michael Dunbar, assistant general manager of the South Coast Water District.

“This one was not our fault,” Dunbar said.

Last year, electrical problems at the district’s pumping stations and broken sewer lines caused seven spills into the ocean off Laguna Beach.

“I don’t want to belittle the environmental impact” of Wednesday’s spill, Dunbar said, “but the amount of sewage out there is very small compared to the tremendous amount of water in the ocean.”