BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS

-- S.J. Cahn

The waves might be good at the Newport Beach jetties today, but no

surfers will be riding them.

The Orange County Health Care Agency on Tuesday closed a 2,000-foot

stretch of beach up and down the coast from the mouth of the Santa Ana

River because of a 1,000-gallon sewage spill.

Six hundred feet of the popular surf spot already was closed because

of a spill caused when a private sewage line burst Feb. 14.

The latest spill, the second of the year, happened after a line in the

Costa Mesa Sanitary District’s sewage collection system was blocked by

grease. It forced the closure of an additional 1,400 feet of coast.

Both spills happened as a strong west swell hit Orange County,

bringing overhead sets to many beaches, including Huntington Beach, and

solid head-high waves in Newport Beach.