UPDATE, 11/23, 4:45 p.m.: Chinese Cuisine-loving Arcatans rejoice. The Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Environmental Health tells the Outpost that they’ve given Szechuan Garden the green light to reopen its doors. 

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UPDATE, 2:04 p.m.:

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The Szechuan Garden restaurant on 18th Street in Arcata was closed by city and county officials Friday afternoon, after a sewage leak to the rear of the building was determined to pose a threat to public safety.

According to a cease and desist order issued by the city of Arcata, leaking and rotted cast iron pipes underneath the restaurant’s building had been discharging sewage into the city’s storm drain system. 

Mark Andre, Arcata’s director of environmental services, told the Outpost this morning that the leaked sewage had been discharged to the rear of the building — not inside it, or into a public area — and that it seems to have been active for some time. The city had been aware of it, and had planned to to take action today, rather than Friday, because weekend rains threatened to disperse the hazardous material more widely.

Pursuant to the order, the city shut off water to the building Friday night. Andre said that the owners had attempted to find a way to keep the restaurant open despite the water shutoff, by trying to make arrangements with neighboring businesses. However, county health inspectors arrived at the scene at around 5:40 p.m. and — as per state health regulations, which require restaurants to have working plumbing — ordered them closed.

Andre said that the Szechuan Garden’s owners are planning major work on the building’s plumbing infrastructure, and expressed hope that the work would completed soon. “I’m glad they’re attending to it because it is a great Arcata business,” Andre said. “Long-term, things will be tightened up.”

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