An ocean water closure for Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro was issued by the L.A. County Health Department on Tuesday, Dec. 30.<\/p>\n
The closure, in place until further notice, follows a recent sewage spill and amid a series of heavy rain \u2014 both of which could be the cause of high bacterial levels that have been found.<\/p>\n
The closure would appear to essentially quash the anticipated Jan. 1 Polar Bear New Year\u2019s swim, which typically draws hundreds. Organizers at the Cabrillo Beach Polar Bear Club were huddling as of Tuesday afternoon and may still decide to have representatives on the beach with refreshments.<\/p>\n
That is, if it\u2019s not pouring rain.<\/p>\n
The forecast, as of Tuesday, predicted a 100% chance of rain in San Pedro on Thursday, Jan. 1.<\/p>\n
The annual first-day-of-the-year swim is typically held under bright sunshine with brisk temperatures, drawing a huge crowd of celebrants splashing and dashing into the waves from the shoreline.<\/p>\n
Residents and visitors this year, however, are advised by the county health department to \u201cavoid contact with ocean water and wet sand\u201d on the beach, and that caution remains in effect \u201cuntil further notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rains are also complicating beach and water safety and access throughout the L.A. County coastal area.<\/p>\n
Several days ago, Cabrillo Beach was impacted by the release of about 100,000 gallons of sewage discharge about three-quarters of a mile upstream and downstream from the beach.<\/p>\n
Closure signs have been posted at Cabrillo to advise the public to avoid ocean waters, the county said in an email. High bacteria levels were found at both the inner and outer beaches at Cabrillo.<\/p>\n
\u201cA beach closure is declared when a sewage spill has impacted ocean waters or when a significant potential health hazard has occurred or is suspected to have occurred,\u201d the county said in its statement. \u201cWater contact during a beach closure may lead to illnesses like gastroenteritis (vomiting, diarrhea), skin rashes, ear\/eye infections or other illness especially in children, the elderly and susceptible people. Swimmers should avoid water contact at the posted areas of the beach until the hazardous condition has ended.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bacteria levels, the email added, \u201ccan be due to both the sewage spill and the rain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New Year\u2019s Day swim at Cabrillo was previously canceled in 2022 when a prior sewage spill also occurred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ocean water closure for Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro was issued by the L.A. County Health Department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,3172,131,133,132,47,137,53102,100,1439],"class_list":{"0":"post-114388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-harbor-area","10":"tag-long-beach","11":"tag-long-beach-headlines","12":"tag-long-beach-news","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-county","15":"tag-new-years-day","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-san-pedro"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}