Station 64 Fails Again; Sewer Hookups Barred

A Thanksgiving Day breakdown at the notorious Pump Station 64 in the Sorrento Valley sent another million gallons of raw sewage pouring into Los Penasquitos Lagoon, forcing the city to order an immediate ban on new building permits for San Diego’s booming northern tier.

The early-afternoon spill was the 59th at the station since 1979. Because of its dismal performance record, city and state officials vowed last summer to impose an immediate sewer-connection moratorium if the station failed again.

The ban, which covers the fastest-growing 100-square-mile area in the city, is to remain in effect at least until the City Council meets Dec. 8. The spill also leaves the city wide open to millions of dollars worth of fines threatened by the state water-pollution agency.

On Monday, city officials tentatively blamed the latest breakdown on human error. They said the sole operator working on Thanksgiving accidentally hit a device that triggers a shutdown. He was unable to reactivate the facility, they said, and had to call in an electrician.

Because it was Thanksgiving, it took an hour and a half for the electrician to arrive and rectify the problem. Because it was a holiday peak flow period, about a million gallons of untreated sewage flowed into a drainage ditch and into the lagoon, officials said.

Informed of the spill Thursday, county health officials quarantined the lagoon, which is separated from the Pacific Ocean by a thin barrier of land. Swallowing water contaminated with sewage can cause gastrointestinal illness and diseases such as cholera and hepatitis.

City Manager John Lockwood acted quickly Friday, ordering the Building Inspection Department to stop issuing building permits that require a sewer hookup in the area served by the plant. That includes Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos, Sabre Springs, Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch, North City West, Fairbanks Ranch and Sorrento Valley.

Approximately 1,800 applications for permits are pending in that area, according to Corinne Smith, water and sewer permits supervisor for the Water Utilities Department. Most of them cover new subdivisions in the area of Carmel Valley, she said.

Construction industry officials expressed disappointment Monday with the moratorium, arguing that it is unfair to penalize their industry for the plant’s failures. They suggested they would argue for an early lifting of the ban.

“The spill was not due to any kind of capacity problem, but rather was due to either a maintenance problem or a human error,” said Kim Kilkenny of the Construction Industry Federation. “Thus, any extensive continuation of the moratorium would not be justified.”

Lockwood appeared to take a similar position: “If it was a failure of equipment or an operator--human error--in either case I don’t think a continued moratorium would be appropriate.”

Others took a different view.

“That’s not a valid argument,” said David Barker, a senior engineer with the Regional Water Quality Control Board, which had also threatened a sewer-connection ban if the plant failed again. “Because if you have a failing system, I don’t think anyone would argue that you should add more flow to a system that already fails.”

“It (the ban) could last quite some time,” said City Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, who last summer proposed such a ban in the event of another spill. She noted that her ordinance left the ban open-ended, and said the determining factor should be protecting public health.

Pump Station 64, which pumps millions of gallons of sewage a day from the northern parts of the city to the Point Loma sewage treatment plant, has failed repeatedly since 1979, sending millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the ecologically sensitive lagoon.

Last April, a 4-million-gallon spill provoked the regional water board to threaten the city with massive fines and a hookup moratorium. The city then imposed its own brief moratorium, and agreed to begin a $9.5-million program to expand and upgrade the plant by mid-1988.

The board, in turn, suspended all but $11,391.95 in fines, vowing to impose the rest only if the city missed its repair deadlines. It held off on the moratorium, too, after the City Council passed Wolfsheimer’s ordinance imposing an immediate ban in the event of breakdown.

On Monday, board Chairman Mary Jane Forster sounded shocked at news of the new spill.

“Oh, no!” she said. “I’m afraid to say a word. I’m in shock. I kept thinking, ‘Don’t let this happen.’ I can’t make a comment right now. This is a very sensitive issue.”

Forster noted that the city was already scheduled to appear before the board next Monday because it expects to miss a crucial deadline in its schedule. However, she appeared uncertain as to whether the nine-member board would carry through on its threats of fines and a ban on hookups.

“We did say that a spill would trigger a connection ban,” she said. “But the ban would address sewage spills that were caused from overloading of the system as new things come on, not from human error by a person. So that will be a sensitive issue for the board to handle.”

Forster also expressed some sympathy for the city’s inability to meet its deadline.

“The city had a hard decision to make: They knew they were going to miss a deadline to improve the plan they gave us,” she said. “By taking the initiative and doing a better job, it’s costing them fine money.”

The board’s own staff is expected to recommend that the board hold the city to the time schedule--which the city itself submitted. If the city misses the deadline, the board’s staff is expected to recommend that the board impose a promised $141,000 fine.

The city is also liable now for fines of up to $10 per gallon of sewage spilled. Under the law, the board’s staff must determine whether the new spill resulted from “intent or negligence.” If such a determination is made, the board may issue a complaint and penalize the city.

Milon Mills, assistant director of the Water Utilities Department, said the Thanksgiving shutdown occurred between 1 and 1:30 p.m., when the plant operator responded to an alarm indicating that a sump was filling with water. While working in the sump, Mills said, the man apparently struck a device that shuts down the plant if the water level rises above a certain level.

“He has said he doesn’t remember this occurring,” Mills said.

He said the operator was unable to override the shutdown and was forced to call in an electrician. The electrician arrived at 2:25 p.m. and shortly afterward the plant was reactivated, Mills said.

He stressed that his department is still investigating to determine precisely how the breakdown occurred.

Lockwood, who is to present a report to the City Council by Monday, indicated there may also have been an electrical problem.

“Yes, from what I know, it was avoidable,” Lockwood said.

Environmentalists working with the Penasquitos Lagoon Foundation, a group that is attempting to protect the area, said Monday that the lagoon was already in bad shape as a result of past spills as well as other pollution from development upstream.

There was a large fish kill in the lagoon six weeks ago. Biologists and others then blamed past spills, contaminated runoff and the effects of heavy rains which brought a lot of fresh water into the salt-water lagoon.

“I guess I’m past the anger stage,” Joan Jackson, president of the foundation, said when informed of the new spill. “I just feel sad and depressed.”