Long Beach beaches remain closed after 2.4M-gallon sewage spill in downtown LA

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- The sandy shores in Long Beach remained closed Wednesday after a massive sewage spill sent the contaminants into the Los Angeles River and ocean waters.

Health officials continue to test the waters to see how bad the contamination may be. The leak happened Monday afternoon after a pipe burst in downtown Los Angeles, with an estimation of only 100,000 gallons leaking out.

But by Tuesday, officials estimated about 2.4 million gallons had spewed out of the pipe. Crews were able to capture about 750,000 gallons of the sewage, but the rest flowed into the river and most likely ended up in the ocean.

Flags and warning signs lined the beaches to warn visitors of possible contamination. Officials grabbed samples early Tuesday morning and those samples yielded no significant signs of contamination.

But officials said they want to wait for the results on samples grabbed Wednesday morning in order to be sure there is no significant amount of sewage. Those results will not be available until Thursday.

If the samples show contamination in the ocean, the beaches will remain closed and officials will continually test until they get two consecutive days of clean samples.