Eight beaches in Monterey County, California, were forced to close this weekend following a spill of sewage from the Monterey One Water wastewater treatment facility in Marina, according to the Monterey County Environmental Health Department. The leak was discovered at about 4.30 am local time on Saturday 20 January 2018, and closed down, though it thought that about 22 275 000 litres of sewage are thought to have leaked through a storm drain into the sea by the time the spill was detected, resulting in the closure of Carmel Beach at Ocean Avenue, Monterey Municipal Beach, Lover’s Point,
the Beach at Monterey State Beach, San Carlos Beach, the beach at Sunset
Drive at Asilomar, the beach at Spanish Bay and Stillwater Cove.
A closed off beach in Monterey Bay, California, following a sewage spill on 20 January 2017. NBC Bay Area.
As well as the obvious dangers to health presented by sewage, which is
likely to contain a variety of Bacteria and other micro-organisms
harmful to Human health, sewage provides a source of nutrients which can
lead to eutrophication and the
rapid growth of blooms of Algae, Bacteria or other micro-organisms,
which absorb oxygen from the water leading Fish and other aquatic
organisms to asphyxiate.
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