In 2021, more than 10 million gallons of raw sewage flowed into Santa Monica Bay, closing beaches and causing rashes, headaches and other symptoms in the area.
Now the city of Los Angeles must pay $20.8 million as part of a settlement with federal authorities.
According to Heal the Bay, an environmental nonprofit that tracks environmental impacts, the July 2021 oil spill led to the closure of Dockweiler State Beach and El Segundo Beach after millions of gallons of untreated wastewater processed by the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in El Segundo were dumped into the bay.
To resolve a federal criminal investigation, L.A. has agreed to pay more than $20 million to cover repairs and improvements to the plant, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California announced Tuesday. The actions are expected to fix problems that led to the massive sewage dump and also go toward related environmental projects.
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“This agreement requires the city to take concrete steps and commit significant funds to improve the Hyperion facility to prevent a disaster like this from happening again,” District Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement released by his office.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigations Division is conducting the investigation.
Last year, the Los Angeles Regional Water Control Board proposed a $21.7 million fine for the spill, which it said was the largest fine the board “has ever proposed for a waste-discharge permit violation.”
According to the water board, residents suffered from headaches, skin rashes, nausea and “noxious odors” as a result of the leak. The water board released a statement about the investigation, which revealed permit violations and harmful “deficiencies” at the plant.
“This was a major incident, one of the largest oil spills in our region in decades,” Hugh Marley, deputy director of the board, said in the statement. He added that the spill “threatened the health of nearby communities, as well as fish and wildlife, and violated numerous environmental laws and regulations.”
After the spill, testing and monitoring of the bay’s waters revealed high, unsafe levels of bacteria, including E. coli and the infection-causing Enterococcus, federal prosecutors said.
But when millions of gallons of raw sewage first spilled into Santa Monica Bay on the afternoon of July 11, 2021, the public wasn’t notified until the next day. Meanwhile, the contaminated beaches remained open for another 16 hours, according to a letter from L.A. County Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport to the county’s Board of Supervisors calling for an investigation.
In the weeks that followed, a Los Angeles Times investigation found that millions of gallons of partially treated sewage from the damaged plant were still being discharged into the bay.
At the time, provincial officials estimated the spill released about 65 million litres of raw sewage.
A week-long independent investigation into the incident was conducted by Citygate Associates LLC Fire & Emergency Services, which also Woolsey Brand which destroyed nearly 100,000 acres in Los Angeles and Ventura counties in 2018.
The company later released a report in July detailing the precise cause of the leak.
A large piece of debris had overwhelmed a filter screen, which uses mechanical rakes to filter out debris such as branches and plastic, causing rapidly rising water to flood the building and prompting the evacuation of workers “due to increasingly life-threatening conditions,” the report said. About six hours later, the plant filed a Haz Mat Spill/Release Report with the California Office of Emergency Services, the report explained, which prompted inspections and emergency response.
The investigation found that the city’s emergency management department and the LA Fire Department had no idea anything was wrong with the plant the afternoon the spill occurred. The report noted that there was no effective plan to inform the public and no central command center to handle the situation.
“The handling of this release and the necessary public announcement were a failure,” the report said.
In the days that followed, concerns emerged from public health officials and local residents. One small business owner in El Segundo told the county Board of Supervisors that she was running an air conditioner and fan 24/7 to try to get rid of the “human feces odor that permeated El Segundo.” In its own response, Heal the Bay criticized county officials for their response to the oil spill.
“The events of July 11 and 12 must never happen again, from the release of 17 million gallons of sewage to the failures to protect public health,” the nonprofit wrote in a letter to the board.
The City of LA will make improvements to the Hyperion plant under an administrative order on consent previously issued by the EPA. These orders outline corrective actions to be taken following major environmental violations.
Some of the improvements expected to be made at the plant include construction and modifications to current equipment that will allow the plant to handle larger amounts of debris and waste, and training of operators in these new changes. The city’s water quality testing program will also be expanded, with two new testing sites between Dockweiler Beach and King Harbor.
LA must conduct a rapid bacteria testing study and become accredited by the EPA to test bacteria levels in ocean water “more quickly,” according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office outlining the settlement. The city must also hire an independent, outside firm to conduct annual audits of the plant to ensure it complies with these changes and the Clean Water Act.
The Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant is the oldest and largest wastewater treatment plant in Los Angeles, processing the city’s sewage as well as that of Beverly Hills, El Segundo, San Fernando, Culver City, Santa Monica and West Hollywood.
This service area covers a large portion of the region, home to more than 4 million people. According to federal authorities, the plant processes an estimated 260 million gallons of wastewater per day.
