Sewage spill prompts beach closure in Marina del Rey
A man walks on a beach in the San Gabriel River near San Pedro and Ocean Beach in Southern California. The San Gabriel River has been closed in the area because of sewage overflows and a sewage spill.
A man walks on a beach in the San Gabriel River near San Pedro and Ocean Beach in Southern California. The San Gabriel River has been closed in the area because of sewage overflows and a sewage spill. (Associated Press)
Marina del Rey, Calif. — A man who found himself on the beach in Marina del Rey, California, was asked to leave a public beach by an official after finding a plastic bottle with water.
The San Gabriel River in the area of San Pedro and Ocean Beach was closed “because water was spilling into the river from a wastewater treatment plant at a sewage spill,” the San Gabriel River Water District said in a statement.
A man walks on a beach in the San Gabriel River near San Pedro and Ocean Beach in Southern California. The San Gabriel River has been closed in the area because of sewage overflows and a sewage spill. (Associated Press)
The closure was lifted after residents were notified of the problem, the city’s department said.
It is not clear the bottle was used as a urinal, according to a San Diego Union-Tribune report. The paper said it had found no evidence the bottle had been flushed down the toilet.
There have been several beach closings over the past year and a half in San Diego County, with many being caused by wastewater.
San Francisco Baykeeper spokesman Dave McCauley said one of the reasons why the San Gabriel River was closed was “an enormous amount of sewage” being released from the sewage plant at the nearby Port of San Diego.
Residents in the city of Marina del Rey said sewage was flowing into the San Gabriel River after a wastewater treatment treatment plant there had a problem with high levels of phosphorous.
The residents complained that the smell and the smell on the beach was becoming “intolerable.”
The San Gabriel Water District said it was taking “immediate corrective action to avoid any further adverse impacts on the community.”