At some point late on Friday night, a filter at a Monterey County water treatment plant clogged up. Normally, an alarm would sound, but according to county officials, this time nothing happened. For eight straight hours, raw sewage poured directly into the ocean—almost 5 million gallons in all.
“A number of alarms did not get to the operator because of a computer communications’ failure,” Monterey One Water general manager Paul Sciuto told ABC7 News. “We still don’t know what caused it.”
The spill wasn’t noticed until early Saturday morning when a plant operator noticed it. The Monterey County Environmental Health Department announced that Carmel Beach at Ocean Avenue, Monterey Municipal Beach, Lovers Point, Monterey State Beach, San Carlos Beach, the beach at Sunset Drive at Asilomar and the beach at Spanish Bay and Stillwater Cove were closed until samples could be taken. By Sunday, however, Sciuto reported that contaminant levels were below the state’s limits, and the beaches were open for business.
Officials are still advising that beachgoers avoid the water until Friday because of the runoff from Monday’s rainfall.
