Sewage spill in Oak View on Thursday closes parts of some Ventura beaches over the weekend

OAK VIEW, Calif. – Beach closure signs have been posted at beaches one mile north and one mile south of the Ventura River outfall after about 15,000 gallons of sewage leaked into a storm drain Thursday.

On Feb. 22, Ojai Valley Sanitary District informed the Ventura County Environmental Health Division that a 35,000 gallon sewage release occurred in the Oak View and of that spill, about 15,000 gallons got into a storm drain that discharged into the Ventura River detail Ventura County Environmental Health Division.

The extent of closures like this are dictated by the amount of sewage spilled and area conditions explain Ventura County Environmental Health Division.

According to the Ventura County Environmental Health Division, beaches will remain closed until water samples indicate it is safe to reenter the water, but even without the sewage leak, local beaches remain under a general rainfall advisory issued whenever area rain totals are above one fifth of an inch.

Rainfall advisories usually last around 72 hours after rainfall ends.

If rains return before water testing on Monday morning, the beaches will likely remain closed past Tuesday detail Ventura County Environmental Health Division.

Part of the response to the spill involved bypassing the damaged line which limited the amount of sewage that entered local waterways explain the Ojai Valley Sanitation District which is now involved in testing waters above and below the spill area to check for elevated numbers of pathogens caused by raw sewage.

The Ventura County Environmental Health Division is also debuting updated signs that don't just warn beachgoers of the health advisory, but also feature a QR code that links to the latest information about the spill response.

You can also check out the Ocean Water Quality Monitoring Program website or the Ocean Water Quality Sampling Results webpage for the latest information.

Ocean water samples taken Monday will be publicly available on Tuesday, Feb. 27.