<i> Urges Special Council Meeting</i> : O’Connor Calls for City to End Sewage Spills

With the City of San Diego facing more than $1 million in fines because of sewage spills and storage problems, mayoral candidate Maureen O’Connor on Tuesday called for a special meeting of the San Diego City Council to try to resolve the issue.

At a news conference at Pump Station 64 in Sorrento Valley--the city’s largest--O’Connor said the council should meet as soon as possible to consider a plan to expand and improve the pump station’s capacity.

Noting that San Diego beaches and bays have been closed for more than 50 days already this year because of sewage spills, O’Connor called the sewage problem a “top priority that is not only threatening the health of the citizens, but also our tourist industry.”

Last week, the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s staff recommended that the city be fined $450,000 for repeated sewage spills in Penasquitos Creek from Pump Station 64. Five major spills have occurred at the pump station this year, the latest one April 23, when an estimated 4.5 million gallons of raw sewage flowed into the creek, forcing a quarantine of Penasquitos Lagoon.

The state pollution-control officials also proposed a moratorium on new sewer hookups leading into the pump station--a measure that would restrict development in a 100-square-mile area of North County.

In addition, the board’s staff proposed that the city be fined more than $650,000 for its failure to remove tens of thousands of cubic yards of sewage sludge stored without a permit at Brown Field. All of the proposed sanctions are to be considered by the water quality board at its meeting next month.

To head off the proposed fines and moratorium, O’Connor said, the council must “move forcefully ahead” to begin to solve the sewage problems before the water quality board’s June 16 meeting.

The council is scheduled to award a $6.4-million contract to upgrade Pump Station 64 on June 2. O’Connor, however, argued that the contract should be considered sooner, at a special session, to demonstrate the council’s “good faith . . . and willingness to seriously address” the sewage problem.

O’Connor also suggested that the council attempt to expedite the expansion project.