Heavy rains pummeling Southern California for the last several days are forcing millions of gallons of raw sewage to spew from sewer connections across Los Angeles County and flow into coastal waters off Long Beach and San Pedro, according to health and sanitation officials.

As communities throughout the Los Angeles Basin cope with mudflows, power outages and flooding, county sanitation crews have struggled to contain multiple sewage spills that have sent waste flowing down major streets and into storm drain systems leading to environmentally sensitive Cabrillo Beach and the Port of Los Angeles, among other locations.

“The problem has been an extremely unusual amount of rain water leaking into the county sewer system causing more flow than some sewer pipelines can handle,” said Bryan Langpap, a spokesman for the L.A. County Sanitation District.