No Justice as Sewage Spill Closes Courts

For the second time in two days, sewage wreaked havoc on downtown San Diego Wednesday, flooding the basement of the County Courthouse and forcing judges to reschedule most of the day’s business.

With sewage six inches deep covering the basement floor and a powerful stench hovering in the hallways, Superior Court was evacuated and closed for the day by Presiding Judge Michael Greer at 9:30 a.m.

Municipal Court was shut down for the morning, but it reopened in the afternoon when county health officials declared there was no health hazard.

Damage estimates were not immediately available. But court officials, noting that the three-square-block basement serves as a primary storage area for the cramped courthouse, predicted that losses would be significant.

“It’s a real mess,” said Municipal Court Administrator Kent Pedersen. “There are boxes of forms down there, exhibits, all sorts of things. There’s also some brand-new furniture for Superior Court lying on its side. Then you have the losses in staff time. It adds up.”

On top of the physical damage, Wednesday’s episode caused major disruptions to the court calendar--disruptions that are likely to keep judges struggling for days to catch up.

A Lot of Rearranging

“The morning calendars were all continued, so we’re going to pay for that,” Presiding Municipal Judge H. Ronald Domnitz said. “There were probably 400 cases affected today. We’ll set up auxiliary courtrooms to try to handle the increased volume over the next few days. It’ll take a lot of rearranging, but we’ll handle it.”

Downtown’s sewage problems began at 5 p.m. Monday when an 18-inch sewer main 16 feet below a construction site at C and State streets was struck by a drill and ruptured. The break at the site of the future Emerald-Shapery Center, a 30-story office complex and 25-story hotel, spewed sewage into the nearby YMCA and disrupted trolley service.

Trouble at the court surfaced early Wednesday morning.

Yvonne Rehg, a spokeswoman for the city’s Water Utilities Department, said the flooding occurred because two temporary lines and pumps installed to reroute sewage around the pipe break could not handle the flow. When employees at the courthouse and neighboring office buildings arrived for work and began using the toilet facilities, the system became overtaxed, causing sewage to back up into the basement.

The problem was quickly obvious to deputy marshals arriving for work Wednesday. The deputies’ locker room is located in the basement, and it was shin-deep in a smelly swill by about 7:30.

“Our deputies were forced to improvise to get themselves dressed for work,” Marshal Mike Sgobba said. “There were six inches of slimy water on the floor and toilet paper and other slippery matter lying around. The smell was horrendous.”

Sgobba promptly notified the presiding judges of the situation, and a decision to evacuate the courthouse was made. Elevator service was shut down because of sewage at the foot of the shafts, and restrooms and drinking fountains were posted with signs warning would-be users to seek out other facilities.

County health officials were called in to conduct tests to ensure that the water supply had not been contaminated--it hadn’t--and the fire marshal inspected the premises for possible hazards, Pedersen said.

“Our main concern was safety,” said Pedersen, who recalls only one other time the courthouse was completely closed down, during a fierce rainstorm in February, 1980. “As for the cleanup, that process should begin tonight and then we’ll start assessing the damage.”

While court administrators appeared to be handling the crisis with aplomb, others in the courthouse were less sanguine when justice ground to a halt Wednesday.

The normally quiet information counter on the ground floor was beset by the angry and confused, who lined up 10 deep to ask court staffer Sylvia Chavez what the heck was going on.

“I can’t find my lawyer,” bellowed one angry young man in blue jeans and leather jacket. “He promised my case would be heard today.”

An elderly gent who said he had been called in as a translator for the day, wandered the halls with a perplexed look on his face, asking every stranger who he should call for new orders.

Lacking an elevator, prosecutors in the district attorney’s office on the seventh floor had to huff and puff up and down the stairs if they had afternoon cases in Municipal Court or wanted to go out for a bite to eat.

“We’re using bottled water to make coffee up here, and the last time I used the bathroom was at lunchtime,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Lamborn, who had a murder trial in Superior Court interrupted by the flood. “It really stinks, but people are pretty lighthearted about it. They’re making lots of bad jokes.”

According to city officials, the pipe break was expected to be repaired by late Wednesday. In the meantime, a third pump was added to help with the rerouting chore and a fourth was on standby.

“It appears as if everything is well under control right now,” Rehg said. “Hopefully, things . . . will be back to normal by the end of the week.”

Elsewhere, trolley service remained affected, with cars stopping at the Civic Center Station at 2nd Avenue and C Street. Passengers continuing to the trolley’s western terminus at the Santa Fe Depot were taken by bus.

At the YMCA, it was almost business as usual Wednesday. The basement and swimming pool, which were flooded Tuesday, had been pumped clean, and electricity was restored. The showers and the coffee shop will be open today, and the swimming pool is scheduled to reopen sometime next week, YMCA Executive Director Don Hanna said.

Perhaps the only people happy about the sewage spill were the handful of folks scheduled to appear in Municipal Court Wednesday afternoon for traffic violations.

After conferring with the Police Department and the city attorney’s office, Judge Domnitz dismissed about 10 moving violations.

“At the time, we didn’t know if we’d be reopening for the afternoon, so it was a question of whether we risk wasting taxpayers’ money to bring police officers in from the field for a hearing that might not be held, or dismiss the tickets,” Domnitz said. “We decided to dismiss the tickets.”