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Sewage Dumped Into Mission Bay

San Diego County officials don't know who dumped raw sewage in Mission Bay. The county closed several popular recreation areas because of contaminated waters. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has

Sewage Dumped Into Mission Bay

San Diego County officials don't know who dumped raw sewage in Mission Bay. The county closed several popular recreation areas because of contaminated waters.  KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has this update.

Several boating and swimming areas around Mission Bay have been closed for three days because of bacterial health hazards.

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The County Department of Environmental Health says routine water quality monitoring detected the contamination.

Officials say the pollution was caused by illegal sewage dumping.

Mark McPherson is the department's chief of land and water quality.

He says the source is a sanitation system or a septic tank.

McPherson: The material that's been washing up on the beaches, you know, has been characterized as being gray blobs. But it's some kind of cellulose-like material that is saturated with what we believe to be sewage.

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He says there's no way to track where that sewage came from and why it was dumped in Mission Bay.

McPherson says the sewage will not change the schedule for the unlimited hydroplane races on Mission Bay which start tomorrow.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.