A Fourth of July beach getaway turned stomach-churning after roughly 2,000 gallons of raw sewage burst from a broken sewer line, surged through a Laguna Beach couple’s backyard and spilled into the Pacific, forcing officials to close part of the picturesque coastline through the holiday weekend.

The closure covers a quarter-mile of shoreline north and south of Anita Street at Thalia Beach, where swimming, surfing and diving are banned for at least three days.

Officials said the water will remain off limits until follow-up testing confirms it meets state health standards.

For Lee and Lynn Cohen, the nightmare unfolded before the sewage ever reached the ocean.

The couple had been at a party Thursday night when their phones were flooded with alerts.

When they rushed home, they found raw sewage erupting from a broken pipe next door and pouring across their property.

“Quite a bit of flow was coming down there, and it finds a path of least resistance, and it flowed right through our yard,” Lee Cohen told FOX 11. “And so we had kind of had a river of, yes, kaka going through our place. And it was a mess, left a mess. But hey, the city was down here quickly.”

Cohen said city crews responded Thursday night and brought the leak under control in about two hours, although county officials have not independently confirmed that timeline.

The Orange County Health Care Agency said the spill was caused by a malfunction of a force main sewer line pump.

“We’re closely monitoring an active sewage spill of approximately 2,000 gallons in Laguna Beach, caused by a malfunction of a force main sewer line pump,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said in a statement Thursday. “Orange County Environmental Health is assessing water quality and determining the extent of necessary beach and ocean closures over the holiday weekend.”

Megan Lee, who drove from Irvine hoping to cool off in the ocean, said the closure was disappointing.

“It’s like a little bit of a bummer, like we kind of wanted to dip our feet in, maybe go in,” Lee told FOX 11. “We haven’t been swimming in like years, so. And it’s a beautiful day, and so to hear that we can’t go in is a little sucky.”

Some beachgoers didn’t realize the water had been contaminated.

Bridget Santos, who was visiting from Culver City, said she hadn’t noticed the warning signs before learning about the spill.

“I just hope people are aware of it, because I would hate to be swimming in the water and then hear that there was sewage in it,” Santos told FOX. “That would be kind of worst-case scenario, I think.”

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