New Sewage Spills Will Trigger Ban on Building

Seeking to avoid a potentially costly showdown with state water quality authorities, the San Diego City Council on Monday approved an emergency ordinance that would impose an automatic moratorium on building permits in northern San Diego if an unreliable sewage station in Sorrento Valley backs up again, or if the city misses a deadline to repair the facility.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor hailed the council’s unanimous approval of the measure, which took effect immediately, as “a big first step” that could persuade skeptical state water officials that the city is serious about attempting to solve the problems at Pump Station 64, which has spilled millions of gallons of raw sewage into Los Penasquitos Lagoon over the past seven years.

“This first step shows our good will (and) that we are, in fact, trying to solve our problem,” O’Connor said.

Monday’s action at City Hall came during the council’s reconsideration of its decision last week not to enact the automatic moratorium as an emergency ordinance--a vote that prompted an angry response from the state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board.

When the proposed moratorium was before the council last Tuesday, O’Connor and other proponents fell one vote short of the six needed for approval of an emergency ordinance, meaning that the measure would not have gone into effect for 45 days. Instead, the measure was approved 5-2 as an ordinary ordinance, with Councilmen Bill Cleator and William Jones voting against it. Two council members--Ed Struiksma and Judy McCarty--were on vacation.

Prior to the council vote, state water officials had dropped their own plans for a building moratorium, in part because of city leaders’ assurances that they were prepared to immediately enact such an automatic ban. Sensing a possible political double-cross after the council failed to take that step last Tuesday, the regional water board retaliated by taking action to revive their own moratorium--and to possibly fine the city $10 per gallon--in the event that the faulty pump caused a sewage spill within the next 45 days.

Ladin Delaney, the water board’s executive officer, said Monday that he believes that his board “will be very pleased” with the council’s approval of the emergency ordinance, but emphasized that the city still could face fines if the pump station fails again. Delaney conceded, however, that the council’s action “could soften the impact” of any punitive measures that the water board might consider if there is a future sewage spill at Pump Station 64.

Last week, the water quality board fined the city $11,391.95 for past spills at the station--considerably less than the $646,800 penalty proposed by the agency’s staff. The $11,000-plus fine would reimburse the Los Penasquitos Lagoon Foundation for the costs of draining the lagoon after recent spills. The remainder of the $646,800 penalty would be imposed only if there is another spill or if the city fails to complete 44 scheduled repairs at the station on time.

“The city is still under the gun,” Delaney said after the council meeting. “They still have to perform all those (repair) milestones and make sure . . . there will not be any additional spills. They have a big responsibility.”

A spokesman for the construction industry, which in the past has warned that any halt in building permits could have a severe economic impact, also termed the council’s action Monday “appropriate given the history of events during the last week.”

“I don’t know that they had a choice,” said Kim Kilkenny, a lobbyist for the Construction Industry Federation.

The emergency ordinance authorizes the city manager to impose an automatic building permit moratorium if Station 64 spills sewage again--as it has on 58 occasions since 1979--or if the city falls behind in the timetable for planned improvements at the station, which is the third largest in the city’s waste-water system. The ban would prevent additional sewer hookups within the 100-square-mile region served by the station, an area that includes Scripps Ranch, Sorrento Valley, North City West, Mira Mesa, Sabre Springs and Rancho Penasquitos, as well as the cities of Poway and Del Mar.

Under the ordinance, the council would be required to review any such moratorium during its next regularly scheduled meeting, at which time the council members could either uphold or rescind the ban.

“The justification for a moratorium is that it prevents the problem from getting worse,” Delaney explained. “We view Pump Station 64 as a very bad performer.”

While experts disagree over whether the problems at the station stem from inadequate capacity to accommodate sewage flows or simple mismanagement, Delaney added that the 58 spills there constitute “the worst track record at any pump station that I’m aware of.” The spills include a 4.5-million-gallon accident on April 23 that forced a quarantine of Los Penasquitos Lagoon.

To correct the station’s defects, city water authorities have pledged to take steps that include installing a backup power source by next month, a 350,000-gallon overflow basin in December and bigger pumps by next May.

During Monday’s council debate, Jones noted that he still had reservations about the manner in which any moratorium would be imposed under the emergency ordinance. In the event of a future sewage spill, “it would be much more logical,” Jones argued, for the council to review the situation before deciding whether a moratorium was necessary or justified, rather than having a moratorium imposed before the council acted.

Despite those misgivings, Jones joined his colleagues in supporting the emergency ordinance, arguing that the council’s failure to enact the measure “would send the wrong signal to the water quality board.”

Similarly, Cleator, who last week voted against the moratorium but then proposed that the council reconsider the subject in the wake of the water quality board’s action, also changed his vote despite some doubts over “whether the ordinance really helps the situation.”

“We haven’t been prudent in managing the pump station,” Cleator said. “We’ve made some mistakes.”

Referring to her characterization of the emergency ordinance as “the first step” in solving Pump Station 64’s problems, O’Connor proposed “a second important step” in which city, state and federal officials would meet to review San Diego’s overall sewage system.