Sewage prompts beach closure

County will test water before reopening area near Torrance after 5,000-gallon spill.

A secluded stretch of beach near Torrance and Rancho Palos Verdes was closed Wednesday morning after 5,000 gallons of sewage spilled into nearby Malaga Creek, officials said.

Lifeguards with the Los Angeles County Fire Department mounted boats and walked along RAT Beach, just south of Torrance Beach, warning people to stay out of the water, said Kealiinohopono Barnes, a spokesperson for the department.

RAT Beach is short for “Right After Torrance” Beach or “Redondo and Torrance Beach,” according to the L.A. County website.

The county’s Department of Public Health was expected to test the water before reopening the beach, Barnes said.

The spill occurred Tuesday evening when a main sewer line in Rancho Palos Verdes became backed up, possibly because of tree roots, said Liz Odenhal, spokesperson for L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office. The sewage poured into streets, drained into nearby Malaga Creek, which snakes along homes, schools and a golf course, then finally spilled out into the cove of RAT Beach.

“I am getting more information about this incident and why we had another sewage spill impact our beautiful coastline,” Hahn said in a tweet Wednesday.

The county’s coastlines have recently seen a number of sewage spills, typically caused by failing infrastructure and equipment.

Last summer, 17 million gallons of sewage were discharged from the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant and into Santa Monica Bay. Though the plant blamed the spill on wood and concrete illegally dumped into the sewer system, a report this year pointed instead to equipment failures, ignored alarms and insufficient staffing.

On New Year’s Eve, a 60year-old pipe burst, spilling 6 million to 7 million gallons of sewage onto Carson streets before going into the ocean, prompting beach closures in Los Angeles and Orange counties.