Officials reopened a closed stretch of Santa Monica Beach Thursday, 12 hours after it was closed due a previously-unknown substance spotted in the water.
"We spent the majority of last night picking up all the material that was left behind that washed up on shore about 7:30 last night," said Tom Clemo, Assistant Chief for the Santa Monica Fire Department.
Officials were concerned that the smelly, white globs of substance posed a health risk, and closed the 100-yard stretch of beach north and south of the Santa Monica Pier Wednesday night.
"It ranged in chunks from the size of a small suitcase to itty bitty bits," Clemo said.
Los Angeles County firefighters said the substance was identified as linoleic acid, a nontoxic substance often found in plant foods like nuts and vegetable oils. It was still unknown where the acid originated and how it got into the water.
"We don't know if it was dropped off by a ship months and months ago and the currents carried it to our beach, we have no clue," Clemo said.
The Santa Monica Fire Department, County Hazmat Team, and U.S. Coast Guard were all notified of the situation Wednesday.
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"You wouldn't think, especially nowadays with everything you hear about everybody being environmentally conscious, you know climate change and all that, that people wouldn't dump things in the water," Sydney Weiss, a woman from New York said.
One Malibu resident, Sue Kamins, skates nine miles along the California coast every day.
"I know the fish didn't do it," Kamins said. "I think we need to take care of Mother Earth."
