Los Angeles County sanitation officials on Thursday, Feb. 8, blamed the intense rain from this week’s storms for overloading the regional wastewater system, leading to numerous sewage spills that led to the closure of beaches in San Pedro and Long Beach.
County and Long Beach officials announced that as much as 8 million gallons of sewage had spilled into the Dominguez Channel during the storms, leading to a closure of Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro and all open coastline in Long Beach. The sewage traveled along the coast to Orange County as well, prompting authorities to close the stretch of Seal Beach from the San Gabriel River to the Anaheim Bay breakwater.
The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, which manages the countywide sewage system for 5.4 million people, issued a statement Thursday insisting that the system has “performed well during previous heavy rains,” but the record-setting storm that battered the region this week severely over-taxed the system.
Sanitation officials said floodwater entered the sewer system through manholes, causing “temporary overloads to sewers that resulted in sewage overflowing onto streets at 10 locations.”
The county agency noted that its largest sewage treatment plant, Warren Water Resource Facility in Carson, typically treats 250 million gallons of sewage per day, but on Tuesday, it was inundated with 560 million gallons, “with more than half of the flow coming from the stormwater inflow.”
“Our goal is to have zero sewer overflows and we are disappointed that the recent overflows occurred,” Robert Ferrante, general manager of the Sanitation Districts, said in a statement. “In the aftermath of this huge storm, we will redouble our efforts in working with our member cities and the county to minimize rain getting into the sewer system. We’ve recently invested $11 million in flow sensors throughout the system and will be analyzing that data to determine where the problem areas are so that we can…
Read the full article here
