City health officials are warning people to stay out of the water all along the Long Beach coastline after a large sewage spill sent thousands of gallons of waste flowing downstream to its beaches.
More than 18,000 gallons of sewage were discharged into the San Gabriel River on Tuesday, according to the California Office of Emergency Services.
“The sewage spill occurred in the City of Industry due to railway installation work that cut through a pipe,” the city of Long Beach said in a health notice Wednesday night.
City health officials said they’ll reopen the water at local beaches when the water quality and bacteria count return to healthy levels.
Long Beach is no stranger to closing its beaches when upstream cities send sewage flowing into the San Gabriel or Los Angeles rivers. It’s talked about exploring ways to hold those polluters accountable and has more recently pushed for better regulation of cities allowing litter into the LA River.