S.D. Criticized for Mission Bay Spills : Regional Water Board Staff Wants City to Fix Sewer System or Be Fined

State water quality officials reprimanded San Diego on Monday for failing to prevent repeated sewage spills into Mission Bay and proposed the issuance of a cease-and-desist order requiring the city to fix up its aging sewage system or face possible fines.

In a report to be presented to the Regional Water Quality Control Board next week, the board’s staff says that 73 spills have occurred in the Mission Bay area since 1980, closing all or portions of the popular aquatic waterway for a total of 714 days--or 27% of the time.

The San Diego River channel also has been hit by sewage from the city’s faulty system, occasionally resulting in the contamination of heavily used beaches near the river mouth, the report said.

Such spills represent “an unacceptable impairment of both the water quality and the beneficial uses of Mission Bay,” the board staff concluded, noting that steps should have been taken years ago to improve the system and prevent breakdowns. The spills also constitute a violation of San Diego’s waste discharge permit and must be stopped, the report said.

“This order is about the strongest administrative action we can take, and we’re hopeful that our board members will go ahead with it,” said David Barker, a senior engineer at the regional board who prepared the report. “We decided that, to get this problem resolved quickly, we were going to take a tough enforcement position.”

Officials with the city’s Water Utilities Department disputed the suggestion that San Diego has been somewhat less than aggressive in tackling the Mission Bay sewage problem. They noted that $25 million has been spent on upgrading the system since 1980, while $14 million will probably be spent on pipe replacement over the next five years.

‘We’ve Been Aggressive’

“I think we’ve been aggressive on it,” Armand Campillo, department director since 1984, said. “People may think we aren’t aggressive enough, but every time something has happened in Mission Bay we’ve taken steps to close that loophole. It seems to me we’re doing everything possible to cure the problem or reduce the problem. I don’t see how we can be more aggressive.”

The proposed cease-and-desist order would require city officials to submit a technical report by July 15 detailing their plan for upgrading the sewage system to prevent future spills. The document must specify a time schedule for the design and construction of necessary repairs.

If that schedule is not met, Barker said the city could be subject to administrative fines. “This is the legal first step to getting them to remedy the problem,” he said. “It leaves open the possibility of penalties in the future.”

Board members will decide whether to issue the order at their regular meeting on Monday. Also on Monday, the board is expected to decide whether to fine the city $800,000 in connection with the breakdown of Pump Station 64 in Sorrento Valley, which has resulted in spills of more than 20 million gallons of sewage since November.

Shallow Body of Water

A former wetland, Mission Bay is a large but very shallow body of water that relies on tidal action to flush its waters. Because of its size and complex shape, many areas of the bay receive little tidal influx and can thus be severely affected by sewage spills. These areas include the bay’s eastern and northeastern reaches, which also happen to be popular swimming spots.

The 73 spills since 1980 have prompted county health officials to quarantine the entire bay or portions of it for periods ranging from less than a day to as many as 113 days. It is difficult to quantify sewage releases, but the largest known spill occurred at Sail Bay in April, 1985, and was estimated by the board at 864,000 gallons.

The Mission Bay drainage basin covers about 80 square miles and is served by six major sewer trunk lines. Waste water overflowing from broken or blocked lines pours into the bay or the adjacent river channel through one of 92 storm drain systems.

According to Barker’s report, the spills historically have been caused by a string of problems, including grease and root blockages in sewer lines, breaks caused by flood damage, manhole failures, pump station breakdowns and collapses of the berms that surround the city’s sludge-drying beds on Fiesta Island.

Such calamities are indicative of the poor condition of much of the metropolitan sewage collection system; one particularly notorious stretch of concrete pipes in the Pacific Beach and Mission Beach area have been in service for more than 60 years and are badly deteriorated, the report said.

In the report, board staff members say that the city has recently developed a strategy for curtailing spills and is continuing a costly rehabilitation of the beleaguered sewage pipe network surrounding Mission Bay. Also, an $8-million interceptor line was installed last year on the bay’s east bank to capture runaway sewage and pump it back into the system before it reaches the water.

Remedial Action

But the state officials criticize city administrators for failing to act earlier on repairs that would have prevented spills and the consequent bay and beach contamination.

“The failure of the City of San Diego to implement . . . remedial actions prior to 1980 resulted in sewage spills to Mission Bay and the San Diego River channel which might not otherwise have occurred,” the report said.

If city officials had taken corrective measures like replacing pipes, increasing the cleaning of sewer mains and installing flow recorders to pinpoint the cause and location of trouble spots, contamination of Mission Bay could have been avoided in 82% of the spills that have occurred since 1980, the report said.

Campillo, noting that he was not director of the Water Utilities Department in 1980, called the board’s proposed order “a judgment call.”

“How far back do you take this thing?” Campillo said. “It’s my recollection that it was only in 1980 that this issue really surfaced and became of concern, so I don’t know how much earlier they could have done something.”