17 Million Gallon Sewage Spill Shuts Miles Of California Beaches

LOS ANGELES – Several beaches in the Los Angeles area were closed to swimmers and surfers on Monday after 17 million gallons of sewage poured into Santa Monica Bay from a treatment plant.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said on Twitter that an unspecified mechanical failure caused the spill on Sunday at the Hyperion Water Recovery Plant.

It was a massive spill of 17 million gallons of sewage into the ocean. I understand the factory was able to prevent an even larger spill, but we’ll need answers on how and why it happened. https://t.co/oHw4krxMOa

– Janice Hahn (@SupJaniceHahn) July 12, 2021

About four miles of El Segundo beaches at the southern end of Playa del Rey have been closed indefinitely while authorities carried out tests on the water.

Timeyin Dafeta, executive director of the Hyperion plant, said in a statement that the facility “was inundated with overwhelming amounts of debris, causing the head-end facilities to be backed up.”

“The plant’s back-up system was triggered and wastewater flows were controlled through the use of the plant’s mile-long outlet and the discharge of untreated wastewater into the plant. Santa Monica Bay, ”Dafeta said.

About 6% of the facility’s daily load was unloaded as an emergency measure to prevent the plant from going offline and spitting out even more raw sewage, the statement said.