17 million gallons of sewage discharged into the ocean after power outage in California
CBSN
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."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.