Two-Week Sewage Spill Shuts Down Aliso Beach

Two thousand feet of Aliso Beach were closed Thursday after county health officials learned that a slow sewage leak had been tainting the waters there for weeks.

Construction workers called Aliso Viejo officials to report that a storm drain smelled peculiar. The city called county officials, who found a line blockage at Cafe Sandia in the 26800 block of Aliso Creek Road was releasing about one gallon per minute.

Monica Mazur, spokeswoman for the county Health Care Agency, estimated the spill had been occurring for a couple of weeks and that 8,000 gallons had been released.