Los Angeles slammed after release of 17 million gallons of sewage closed beaches

[ad_1]

Seventeen million gallons of raw sewage was dumped in Santa Monica Bay earlier this week after a sprawling wastewater treatment plant in Los Angeles struggled, leading to several beach closures over 12 hours later, which was heavily criticized for not having taken place earlier.

The beaches, which stretch for more than 2.5 miles along the Pacific coast west of Los Angeles International Airport, reopened on Wednesday after a two-day shutdown, health officials say public.

But the fallout from wastewater management at Hyperion’s water recovery plant, one of the world’s largest wastewater treatment plants, continued long after swimmers and surfers were allowed to return to the ocean.

Critics said the city’s Department of Public Works and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health took more than 12 hours to alert bathers to the landfill, which lasted about eight hours from Sunday night to Monday. morning.

It wasn’t until late Monday morning that the first signs of beach closures appeared along the nearby stretch of coastline, the Los Angeles Times reported. The county health agency did not mention the closures until 5:30 p.m. local time on Monday when it posted a press release on its Twitter account.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday called for an investigation into what was wrong with the sewage treatment plant and the city and county’s response.

What happened off Dockweiler Beach yesterday was irresponsible, unacceptable and dangerous, county supervisor Janice Hahn said on Twitter Tuesday. Not only did the Hyperion plant dump 17 million gallons of sewage into our ocean, the public had little to no information about it for HOURS.

The city’s public works agency referenced on Thursday to a previous statement provided by the factory’s executive director, saying factory operators followed protocols to notify local and state agencies of the landfill. emergency.

Executive director Timeyin Dafeta said the plant was inundated with overwhelming amounts of debris on Sunday afternoon, causing a backup of upstream facilities.

The factory back-up system was triggered and the sewage flows were controlled through the use of the mill’s one-mile outlet and the discharge of untreated sewage into Santa Bay. Monica, Mr. Dafeta said.

The 17 million gallons of raw sewage that was released represented about 6 percent of the facility’s average daily load, according to city estimates.

We are investigating the cause of the debris (mainly building and landscaping materials and grease balls) and repairing damaged equipment, Dafeta said.

The Los Angeles County Department of Health did not immediately comment on Thursday when asked why it took about half a day for beach closure signs to be posted.

In a press release on Wednesday, the agency said the water samples it had taken in the past two days at the four closed beaches were acceptable to reopen them. These beaches were: Dockweiler State Beach at Water Way Extension, Dockweiler State Beach at Hyperion Plant, El Segundo Beach, and the beach near the Grand Avenue storm sewer.

Untreated sewage and polluted water that drains after it rains can expose swimmers to pathogens, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which said in an article on its website that the swimmers children, the elderly, and people with weakened immune systems are at greater risk of disease. .

The most common illness associated with exposure to sewage is gastroenteritis, which the EPA says can cause nausea, vomiting, upset stomach, diarrhea, headache, or fever. Ear, eye, nose and throat infections are also a risk.

In a motion that was unanimously approved on Tuesday, the county watchdog also asked officials to develop an action plan so they can respond more quickly to future sewage discharges.

We will never be able to repeat this nightmare scenario, Ms Hahn said.

In an Instagram post on Wednesday, the head of Heal the Bay, an ocean and watershed environmental group, said the delay put the public at risk.

LA County Public Health needs a protocol to quickly notify the public of dangerous sewage contamination, Shelley Luce, group president and CEO, said in the post.

[ad_2]