BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS El Pollo...

BRIEFLY IN

THE NEWS

El Pollo Loco grease sparks beach closures

A grease blockage at an El Pollo Loco in the 1900 block of Harbor

Boulevard in Costa Mesa set off a chain of events that eventually

caused the closure of parts of Huntington State Beach and Newport

Beach’s coastline.

The grease started piling up on Tuesday night, blocking a pipe and

causing an overflow into the storm drain, said Monica Mazur,

spokeswoman for the Orange County Health Care Agency.

From the storm drain, the greasy goo flowed into the Greenville

Banning channel and then into the Santa Ana River and the ocean, she

said.

Wednesday afternoon, the county’s Environmental Health Division

posted a swimming and surfing closure 300 feet up-coast and 300 feet

down-coast of the Santa Ana River as a precautionary measure.

On Thursday, the agency will start taking water samples; once it

records two consecutive days of cleanliness, the closures will be

removed, Mazur said.

It’s up to the Regional Water Quality Control Board to decide

whether to issue a citation against El Pollo Loco, Mazur said.