More than 250,000 gallons of sewage spill into bay

Paul Clinton

UPPER NEWPORT BAY -- Water treatment officials scrambled Friday to

clean up more than 250,000 gallons of partially treated sewage after it

spilled into San Diego Creek.

By 3:15 a.m. Friday, workers had contained the spill, which occurred

at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, an Irvine Ranch Water District spokeswoman said.

The sewage spill was the result of a break in a 12-inch, tar-covered

water district irrigation pipe, which was laid down in the 1940s to draw

creek water to a duck hunting area.

In the wake of the spill, the Orange County Health Care Agency closed

a 2.5-mile section of the bay, from Jamboree Road to North Star Beach.

The closure, put into place at 8:15 a.m. Friday, will stay in effect

for at least 72 hours while agency officials take water samples to

determine if the waste water has been removed.

Irvine Ranch Water District spokeswoman Joyce Wegner-Gwidt said

treatment plant workers had contained the spill by pumping the waste

water back into storage basins.

“We had a hard time locating the pipeline because it’s not on our

maps,” Wegner-Gwidt said.

The water district, created in 1961, provides reclaimed water for

landscape irrigation and other commercial and industrial uses in Newport

Beach and Irvine.

When the pipe broke, the waste water flowed into the creek from

emergency storage ponds, where it was in limbo after another of the

plant’s irrigation lines broke Tuesday.

There have been 340 spills in the bay this year, along with 38 beach

closures, said Health Care Agency spokeswoman Monica Mazur.

The Santa Ana Regional Water Control Board will determine whether to

fine the water district for the spill.