Spill closes Sleepy Hollow Beach

Sand and trash are believed to be the culprits of a blockage that

sent 430 gallons of sewage into the high tide off Sleepy Hollow Beach

and into one of the restrooms at Mosun’s.

The spill was reported at 8 a.m., Sunday when the manholes in the

600 block of South Coast Highway burbled up with sewage, Assistant

City Manager John Pietig said.

Sewer workers recovered only 20 gallons of the spill that breached

the storm drains at Sleepy Hollow, which resulted in a closure by the

Orange County Health Department. That particular storm drain was

cleaned in December.

“We’re still investigating it,” Pietig said. “It appears it could

be some debris from the construction work that’s being done on

Glenneyre.”

“We didn’t have anything major,” said Hansen Kamci, general

manager of Mosun’s. “One of the restrooms backed up but we cleaned it

and re-sanitized it.”

This is the second beach closure due to city sewer spills within

the last three weeks. Bluebird Beach was shut down Jan. 17 due to

tree roots that blocked a city line. Most of that spill was contained

at the storm drain but the county health department closed the beach

as a precaution, Pietig said.

Sleepy Hollow Beach was reopened at 3 p.m., Tuesday.

-- Mary A. Castillo

Council of Catholic Women meeting

St. Catherine of Siena Council of Catholic Women will hold its

monthly meeting at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 11 in the reception room of the

United Methodist Church on Wesley Drive.

The guest speaker will be the Rev. Eamon O’Gorman.

Guests are welcome. Light refreshments will be served. Please call

if a baby-sitter will be needed, 494-7761.