Sewage spills into surf; beach closes

Three-hundred feet of coastline surrounding Anita Street was closed

Thursday morning after a power outage caused pump stations to break

down, said Monica Mazur of Orange County Environmental Health.

Five pump stations stopped working when San Diego Gas and

Electric, the power provider for these Laguna pump stations,

experienced a power outage due to heavy rains, Mazur said.

Between 45 and 50 gallons of sewage traveled with runoff into the

surf, Mazur said. City crews cleaned up any visible sewage that had

not made it into the ocean, Mazur said. Environmental Health will

keep the beach closed for a minimum of three days and will continue

to monitor ocean bacteria levels in the area, Mazur said.