Ocean access in Huntington, Newport beaches OK’d after sewage spill

A nearly half-mile segment of coastline in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach at the Talbert Channel reopened to surfers and swimmers Monday morning after a large sewage spill caused a weekend cessation of water activity.

Orange County Health Care Agency officials on Saturday called for the temporary closure along beaches 1,000 feet to the north and south of the channel, near the mouth of the Santa Ana River, to protect visitors from potential exposure to bacteria.

The spill stemmed from a blockage discovered Friday evening in a sewer line on Costa Mesa’s Mesa Verde Drive East, near Golf Course Drive, according to Scott Carroll, general manager of Costa Mesa Sanitary District.

Carroll said a roughly 4,000-gallon spill was detected on the 1500 block of Mesa Verde Drive East shortly after 4:45 p.m. Friday, when a resident in the area noticed water issuing from a 5-inch cleanout accessing the sewer line and contacted the district directly.

“We were notified by a resident in the area who called us,” he said Monday. “The sewage was coming out of a cleanout, not a manhole.”

Crews arrived at the scene just before 5:30 p.m., checking points upstream and downstream of the leakage to pinpoint the location of the blockage and to ultimately prevent the spill from reaching further into the storm drain network.

Working with a vehicle armed with both a vacuum and a high-pressure water hose, sanitary district employees captured about 3,000 gallons of spilled sewage.

The blockage was determined to have been caused by a combination of tree roots and grease, possibly from a residence in the area, according to Carroll. The affected segment of sewer line, which is annually inspected for blockages, was last checked May 9, 2024.

“It was due for a cleaning any day now,” he said. “But having that much grease build up in one year is pretty uncommon.”

To mitigate the effects of the remaining 1,000 gallons of sewage, Orange County Health Care Agency officials on Saturday began testing water samples, according to Environmental Health Director Darwin Cheng.

Cheng said the spill likely traveled through the Fairview and Banning channels to the Santa Ana Riverbed, eventually reaching the Talbert Channel.

“During the closure on Saturday and on Sunday we took samples at various locations to monitor the bacteria levels,” he added, indicating the readings had fallen within acceptable standards by Monday.

For information regarding Orange County ocean, bay, or harbor closures, call (714) 433-6400 or visit OCBeachinfo.com. To report a sewage spill, call (714) 433-6419.