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| Workers shovel inside a sand berm as crews work to contain sewage on Manhattan Beach following a pump failure that created a massive spill. Photo: Brad Graverson/AP |
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| Map of Santa Monica Bay showing the large area of South Bay beaches effected by the massive sewage spill of January 15-16, 2006. Image: Heal the Bay |
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Multiple failures result in spill with raw sewage entering ocean waters. Heal the Bay calls for an investigation to find the cause and demands quick and appropriate enforcement actions to prevent a spill of this magnitude from happening again.
On Sunday and Monday, January 15-16, 2006, as much as 2 to 2.5 million gallons of raw sewage was released from the sewage pumping plant at 27th and the Strand in Manhattan Beach.
A “triple failure” of a failed alarm system, shorted electrical panel and a dysfunctional backup power generator led to the pumping plant failure which took over 12 hours to repair. As a result, sewage backed into homes, was released through manhole covers, into flood control channels, and directly into the ocean.
Estimates range from 100 thousand to half a million gallons of sewage that reached the beach and potentially impacted the Bay. County Beaches and Harbors’ crews acted quickly to build sand berms to contain the sewage on the beach. Several miles of popular beaches (from Malaga Cove north to Dockweiler Beach at the Hyperion Treatment Plant) will be closed until at least midweek.
Heal the Bay is calling for a significant investigation to find the exact cause of such a catastrophic collapse of safeguards for public health, and demands quick and appropriate enforcement actions be taken to prevent a spill of this magnitude from happening again. Backup generators should never fail. The public should be notified of spills as soon as they happen. Thorough and expanded beach water quality monitoring efforts must occur immediately after the spill and continue until the beaches are safe. None of these occurred.
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