Sewage spill closes Santa Barbara beach

Dec. 4, 2012 1:51 PM PT

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A 6,600-gallon sewage spill has temporarily shut a popular Santa Barbara beach adjacent to the city’s harbor.

Leadbetter Beach will not reopen until tests indicate the water is safe, according to Manuel Romero, Santa Barbara’s wastewater collection superintendent.

The spill of untreated sewage was spotted Monday morning after a resident called the city to complain about a storm sewer access hole that had been overflowing since noon the previous day. Water from the spill flowed into a storm drain, down cliffs and into the ocean at the beach.

City workers on Monday unclogged the sewer, which had been blocked by roots growing into a connecting line.

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Map: Approximate location of beach closure shown in red. Credit: Google Maps

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Steve Chawkins

A former obituary writer, Steve Chawkins joined the Los Angeles Times in 1987 after working as a reporter and editor at the Santa Fe Reporter in New Mexico and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver. He has been a roving state correspondent and a columnist and reporter in the Ventura County edition. He also was managing editor of the Ventura Star-Free Press. He graduated in 1969 from Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. Chawkins left The Times in 2015.