Repairs Halt Huge Sewage Spill; City May Face Hefty Fine

San Diego’s notorious Pump Station 64 in Sorrento Valley began pumping sewage again Friday after a foot-square hole in a 36-inch outtake pipe was sealed shut by crews working through the night to stem the record spill.

That was the good news Friday; the bad news for city officials was that the Regional Water Quality Control Board will consider in April whether to assess the city $800,000 in fines because of the newest sewage outburst, the most serious yet in a continuing series that has plagued the pump station. Fifty-nine spills in the last eight years have been blamed either on overcapacity, mechanical problems or human error.

Water board engineers met Friday afternoon with city engineers to discuss what blame, if any, can be laid for the break Thursday morning, which dumped 20 million to 25 million gallons of raw, untreated sewage within 25 hours into the canyon that feeds into Los Penasquitos Lagoon, between Torrey Pines State Beach and Del Mar. The amount is a record for the City of San Diego and is among the largest spills in state history.

One of the issues to be examined, said David Barker, senior engineer for the regional water board, is whether the city can be held responsible or culpable for the break, or whether it was unpreventable and thus no fault of the city’s.

City officials say it is premature to point a finger at them.

“We’re still trying to determine what caused the problem, and whether it was preventable, and what is the likelihood of it occurring again,” said Ben Dillingham, chief of staff for San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor.

“All of those things have to be considered before you can start finding fault or assessing blame or damages.”

County health officials, meanwhile, said about 1 1/2 miles of Torrey Pines State Beach as far north as the Del Mar city limit will remain quarantined for at least nine days.

The pump station, which moves sewage from Sorrento Valley, Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos, Poway, North City West and Miramar to the city’s sewage treatment plant at Point Loma, was reactivated at 10:33 a.m. Friday--a day earlier than expected.

“The crews worked through the night in rain and mud--and more than mud--and we’ve really got to sing a song of praise for them,” said Yvonne Rehg, spokeswoman for the city’s Water Utilities Department.

The crews finally uncovered a hole that was 6 inches wide and 24 inches long, and covered it with a half-inch-thick steel plate before pouring concrete around it.

The pipe had been installed in 1970 and was scheduled to be replaced next year as part of $20 million in general improvements ordered by the city for the troublesome pump station. Officials also are planning to install a new and larger pipe to handle the growing amount of sewage pumped by the station, which serves the city’s fastest-growing area.

On Friday, County Supervisor Susan Golding said she would ask fellow supervisors to suggest to the cities of Poway and Del Mar that they implement building moratoriums until the pump station “can deal with electrical failure,” which contributed to Thursday’s break.

Poway recently ordered a temporary building moratorium because it has reached its capacity share of sewage treatment.

Golding said the county would help the city in “any way it can,” adding: “A power failure should not have caused the pump station to surge and overflow. We cannot have a spill every time we turn around.”

Thursday’s break occurred after a quick succession of short power outages allowed sewage that was being pumped uphill, out of the plant, to flow back down into the plant. The backed-up sewage created enough pressure to crack the pipe before a back-up power supply could be activated to keep the sewage moving, officials said.

John Melbourn, the county’s public health engineer, said the dumped sewage worked its way about three or four miles on a serpentine path through canyons and channels to Los Penasquitos Lagoon and into the Pacific Ocean, just south of where Carmel Valley Road intersects North Torrey Pines Road.

“We don’t have a feeling” on how long the beach will remain contaminated, Melbourn said. “It will be closed nine days, at least.”

The pump station suffered another sewage leak last Thanksgiving Day--caused by operator error--prompting the Water Quality Control Board to fine the city $1.5 million. But $1 million of that fine was suspended, contingent on no new spills occurring at the plant.

“Now that there has been (another spill), the city is vulnerable in having to pay additional penalties to the state,” said Barker. The maximum amount that can be levied is $800,000, and the exact amount will depend on the amount of sewage spilled. The amount of sewage lost Thursday and Friday would bring the city the maximum fine, Barker said.

“But that fine would only become payable after the regional board conducts a hearing on the matter in April,” he said. ‘It’s certainly on the table.”

Barker added: “This (pipeline break) is bad news for everybody. The pump station has had a terrible history of overflows and the city has been on notice several times that those discharges will no longer be tolerated. I’m sure they’re as unhappy about it as we are. It’s very unfortunate.”

Terry Wilson, a spokesman for the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in San Francisco, said it was premature to speculate on whether the EPA will involve itself in the most recent incident.

“We’ll see what action the water review board takes; if it is what we consider appropriate action, then we won’t take any, but if we feel there should be additional enforcement action, we will take it,” Wilson said.

What would be considered “appropriate action” by the state water board? “We don’t know yet, until we get a better handle on what exactly happened out there,” he said.