17 million gallons of sewage discharged into the ocean after power outage in California

Seventeen million gallons of untreated sewage was discharged into the Santa Monica Bay on Sunday after a power outage, officials said Monday night. The sewage has forced beaches across Southern California to close to the public this week. 

Los Angeles County's largest and oldest sewage plant, Hyperion Water Reclamation, said Monday that it "became inundated with overwhelming quantities of debris, causing backup of the headworks facilities." The spill into Santa Monica Bay lasted for eight hours, where 6% of the plant's daily load was released, the plant said.  Plant officials said the massive discharge was "an emergency measure to prevent the plant from going completely offline and discharging much more raw sewage."