Raw Sewage Spill Closes 1,000 Feet of Doheny Beach

One thousand feet of Doheny State Beach in Dana Point will be closed to swimmers and surfers at least until Tuesday because of a spill of an estimated 500,000 gallons of raw sewage, health authorities said Friday.

The overflow, which occurred in Mission Viejo, was halted within three hours after it was discovered Thursday, according to Jim Smith, operations manager for the Moulton Niguel Water District. Smith said the effluent was expected to be “greatly diluted” by Friday afternoon.

Nevertheless, Steven K. Wong, assistant director of the Orange County Health Care Agency’s environmental health division, ordered the closure until tests of the ocean water can be completed Monday.

“There were no visible signs of sewage on the beach or in the water when we took samples Friday morning,” Wong said. “The beach probably will reopen Tuesday.”

State lifeguard Steve Long said signs were posted warning visitors to stay out of the ocean in an area 500 feet on each side of the San Juan Creek mouth. He said people sunbathing on the sands near the creek were unaffected by the closure.

Smith said his office was notified of the problem at 11 a.m. Thursday, when liquid effluent was found escaping from a manhole over a 12-inch pipeline in a vacant area near the intersection of Crown Valley Parkway and Puerta Real, near the Mission Viejo Mall.

“We don’t know when the spill started, although there was an odor reported to county flood control people late Wednesday,” he said. “We were alerted Thursday and our crews had the blocked line clear by 2 p.m.”

Smith said the sewage flowed from the manhole to a flood control channel beneath Interstate 5, then into Oso Creek and Trabuco Creek. The untreated sewage finally reached San Juan Creek in San Juan Capistrano, and from there, it was carried to the ocean.

Normally, the 12-inch pipe would have shunted the sewage to the Southeast Regional Reclamation Authority plant in Dana Point for treatment before the effluent was released through an offshore pipeline.

“The spill could not have been a major one because SERRA (plant officials) did not report any significant change in the rate of flow through their system,” Smith said.

Water contaminated with sewage, if ingested, can cause diarrhea and even hepatitis if the contamination is severe enough, according to Orange County health officials.

Last May, one of the largest raw sewage spills in Orange County history closed nearly one mile of Laguna Beach’s shores to bathers and surfers for a few days.

The spill occurred May 21, when a sewage pump station was knocked out of service by an electrical failure. About 1 million gallons of sewage that normally would have flowed to a treatment plant in Aliso Canyon was diverted to an old ocean outfall that extends seaward 3,100 feet from Main Beach.