The City of Los Angeles’ Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in Playa del Rey, Calif., spilled 17 million gallons of raw sewage, 6% of its daily load, into the Santa Monica Bay starting July 11 due to a clog of debris–but a timeline shows that health officials failed to inform the public and close contaminated beaches for nearly 18 hours after the incident began.
"We are just getting into the investigation, but we do know that the massive amounts of debris were landscaping and construction materials, as well as grease balls," says Elena Stern, senior public information director at the City of Los Angeles Dept. of Public Works.