San Diego
County health officials are expected to lift quarantine signs from Famosa Slough and the mouth of the San Diego River this morning. The area had been off limits since a sewage spill Tuesday night. Dr. John Melbourn, chief of the county’s environmental health division, said that a blocked sewer main caused a spill of less than 1,000 gallons into the estuary, prompting city utilities officials to ask the county to post warnings of the contamination at area entrances.
Melbourn said that tests Friday indicated that the area was no longer contaminated.
The fate of Famosa Slough, a 20-acre marsh south of the San Diego River, has been the source of contention between the owner of the land, Terry Sheldon, and local residents and environmental groups seeking to prevent him from building a 400-unit condominium complex there.
A San Diego City Council committee last month voted to explore the possibility of city acquisition of the site as a wetlands park. The city already owns 10 adjacent acres along the Famosa Channel north of the slough.
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