San Diego

The formation of an 11-member task force to review and recommend solutions to repeated sewage spills in Mission Bay was announced Thursday by San Diego City Councilman Mike Gotch.

Polluted water caused by the sewage has repeatedly forced public health authorities to close beaches.

The task force will be composed of local water quality experts, engineers and business leaders. Martin Blatt, managing director of Vacation Village Hotel from 1965-1985, will serve as chairman.

“I have great confidence in the people who have agreed to donate their time and expertise to this effort,” Gotch said. “They care about San Diego and recognize the importance of Mission Bay to the well-being of this community.”

Gotch, who has sought solutions to the pollution problem since he took office in 1979, said he came up with the task force idea in March. Although the City Council took no part in its formation, the task force will submit its proposals to the council, Gotch said.

“They are charged with reviewing all of the relevant data on Mission Bay Park . . . and recommending solutions, funding options and a timetable for implementation,” he said.

Gotch said efforts by the city to solve the bay’s pollution problem have cost $25 million since he took office. Those efforts have included a major dredging and shoreline restoration project, an expansion of the holding capacity of sewage pump stations, a comprehensive study on water quality, and a massive project to replace the 37 miles of deteriorated sewer lines surrounding the bay. (Ruptured sewer lines are often the main culprits in the bay’s pollution problems.)

“In spite of all these efforts,” Gotch said, “the pollution has not been stopped.”

Gotch said past efforts to address the problem have failed, in part, because Mission Bay is a man-made aquatic park rather than a natural estuary. “There isn’t a whole lot of tidal action,” he said. “It doesn’t get a lot of flushing.”

Gotch said he believes recommendations from the task force will aid the council in more expedient use of funds for future projects.

Task force members are Sea World Vice Presidents Don Hall and Jim Antrim; Steve Alexander, chairman of the Mission Bay Committee; Thomas A. Schoch, general manager of the Town & Country Hotel; San Diego State University Profs. John B. Conway (occupational and environmental health) and Clive Dorman (physical oceanography); Ron Roberts, an environmental planner; James Gutzmer, a consultant; Gary Stephany, chief of the division of environmental health protection for San Diego County, and Gil Contreras, a businessman and member of the state Coastal Commission.