When Najah Najiy returned to her Carson home from a Kwanzaa event on Friday, Dec. 31, she was greeted with sewage-steeped water flooding her 212th Street neighborhood.
The muck was part of the estimated 8.5 million gallons of raw sewage caused from a broken pipeline that sent the sludge through the Dominguez Channel to the Port of Los Angeles.
Najiy, a 30-year-resident, described a stagnant river of murky, smelly brown water that remained on her street until Los Angeles County sanitation workers came to help.
The wave of sewage, cut loose as a severe rainstorm overwhelmed a 48-inch sewer mainline, allowing the toxic sludge to flow into the channel and on into Los Angeles Harbor, shutting down beaches along the Los Angeles and Orange County coastline. The flow was halted on Friday morning and officials said no additional sewage flow had been reported since then.
Some beaches along the San Pedro coastline were reopened by Monday, as were beaches in Orange County. But water testing for bacteria levels continued at multiple sites, include all beaches in Long Beach. Those beaches will not reopen for swimming, surfing and other water-related activities until water quality levels meet acceptable standards, health officials said.
The river of slop and its accompanying stench hit particularly hard in Carson. Noxious odors have been a sadly recurring issue for the city’s residents, who have also dealt with a stench from decaying vegetation in the 15-mile long Dominguez Channel since early October.
That odor, which lasted for weeks, has started to dissipate, but could cost up to $143 million to remedy.
“The smell was powerful, even in my car with the windows up,” Najiy said of the recent sewage spill. Fortunately, the water didn’t make it up Najiy’s driveway — but the stench did, she said.
Najiy said the smell was so pungent in the front part of her house that she couldn’t sleep in her bedroom. It was “filled with the smell of poop,” Najiy said.
“So much is happening, it’s just like one thing to another,” Najiy said. “It’s been quite trying here in Carson. That’s why it’s important that what needs to be fixed is fixed.”
Sanitation crews were out in force on Monday, Jan. 3, fixing damage caused by the sewage leak at 212th Street and Moneta Avenue. And Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes canvassed the area and took a tour of the repair site.
Davis-Holmes credited Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts officials for being on the scene of the spill as soon as it happened, offering residents several resources to help remedy any damage.
While the mayor listened to Najiy and other residents’ stories, the sanitation department worked on giving the streets and sidewalks another wash — and sanitation employees made every attempt to give impacted residents resources.
The department has “reached out to them, made suggestions, and they’ve been very responsive to the fact that this is a situation that’s out of their control,” Davis-Holmes said. “And they want to do everything to make it right.”
In addition to handing out claim forms so residents with severe property damages can seek reimbursement, the sanitation department also plans to replace front yard grass tainted by the sewage. And they’re offering free car washes to any resident affected, according to Basil Hewitt, spokesperson for the Sanitation Districts of L.A. County.
Bryan Langpap, public information officer for the L.A. County Sanitation Districts, said department representatives were distributing fliers throughout neighborhoods impacted by the incident. But, he added, no odors have been reported directly to the sanitation department, but may have come in through other agencies.
Monitoring for hydrogen sulfide, which caused the strong odors late last year in the Dominguez Channel, has been ongoing, Langpap said, with levels unchanged from two weeks before the spill compared to readings after the sewer spill.
The focus, Langpap said, now is on cleaning out the collapsed pipe and returning flow back to the sewer once it is lined to reduce reliance on the above-ground bypass systems now handling the waste.
The broken pipeline, a 48-inch pipe installed in 1960, was reported Dec. 30 during the severe rainstorm. It collapsed at 220th Street near the 110 offramp.
The spill was stopped at 9 p.m. Dec. 31, after multiple sewer bypass systems were put in place to redirect the flow.
Langpap, in a statement late Monday, Jan. 3, said crews have completed a video inspection of a portion of the sewer downstream of the collapse and the sewer is in good condition.
The long-term fix will come with slip-lining that will be used to retrofit the pipe on the inside. The slip-lining has been ordered and is expected to be delivered to the site on Jan. 10, said Langpap in the statement.
Slip-lining involves placing a 42-inch pipe within the sewer to provide a new, corrosion-resistant pipe to carry the sewage.
The slip-lining is expected to take four to five days and once construction is complete, the nearby 110 off-ramp can be fully reopened, said Langpap.
An investigation will continue into why the pipe collapsed, but Langpap suggested that both the pipe’s age and the heavy rains that came last week are likely factors.
Langpap said there was no indication of an “imminent failure” of the line before the collapse. That would have prompted the agency to bring in contractors as a preemptive move, he said.
When the pipe was installed in 1960, he said, it reflected the practices of that time and used reinforced concrete.
Over time, he said, it was learned that under some conditions there can be a buildup of sulfuric inside that then eats away at the concrete. Since the 1980s, plastic liners have been put inside the pipes and the sewer lines are now expected to last much longer, Langpap said.
The pipe was on a list to be replaced due to age in another 6 to 12 months, he added.
Beaches start to open to the public
Beaches began to reopen on Monday, Jan. 3, along the Los Angeles and Orange County coastline, but testing continued on Long Beach coastal areas following the sewer leak.
Along the San Pedro coastline, beaches including Point Fermin, Royal Palms/White Point and Point Fermin were reopened by Monday. But Cabrillo, where Saturday’s 70th annual Polar Bear New Year’s swim had to be canceled, remained closed.
Water testing for bacteria levels continued at 19 sites, said Langpap.
Orange County beaches got the go-ahead by mid-afternoon Monday, Jan. 3 when water readings came back indicating normal bacteria levels, said Julie MacDonald, communications director of the Orange County Health Care Agency.
In Long Beach, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health Services said Monday, Jan. 3 that water sample results weren’t available yet from the weekend but once bacterial levels are within normal range, the beaches along that city’s southern coastline also will reopen.