On Sunday, the pristine, golden mica-flecked beaches of Coronado were hit with contamination warnings as sewage from the Tijuana River, swollen by recent rains, flowed north.
Separately, On Tuesday, the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health issued a pollution alert two days after an estimated 154,000 gallons of treated sewage burst out of a pressurized sanitation pipeline and flowed into a drainage channel that flows into the San Luis Rey River.
The incident occurred in Oceanside at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, according to ABC 10; city crews needed 15 hours to contain the problem. Tests conducted on preliminary samples from the spill showed high bacteria counts despite the fact that the sewage had been treated, prompting the Health Department to install signs warning of contamination along access points to the river. The signs will be removed once further testing shows the waterway is safe. The DEH reported that the spill did not affect the ocean.
Further north, the community of Oceanside has been plagued by sewage spills for years. In August 2009 roughly 3,120 gallons of sewage spilled into the ocean from a broken pipe underneath Ruby’s Restaurant; in December 2010, more than 5 million gallons of effluent flowed into Buena Vista Creek from a leak in the Haymar sewer line.