Battle Over Sewage Ads Heightens in Round 3 : Election: Campaign ads in the gubernatorial race focusing on San Diego’s sewage problems have been criticized by two groups. They want the ads off the air.

First came Dianne Feinstein’s “Red Ink” campaign ad, a 30-second television spot that accused Sen. Pete Wilson of mishandling San Diego’s sewage problems when he was mayor, polluting Mission Bay and failing to meet federal clean-water requirements--a “$2.3-billion mistake” that taxpayers can’t afford, said the ad.

Then came Wilson’s 30-second response, simply titled “Rebuttal.” It accused Feinstein of false accusations and countered that Wilson had merely “refused to waste tax dollars” on secondary sewage treatment, which “scientists and the Sierra Club agreed were unneeded.”

Get ready for round three. This week, just days before Californians will choose their next governor, San Diego’s sewage has remained in the political spotlight as two groups have attacked the ads and called for their withdrawal from the airwaves.

On Wednesday, the Sierra Club, which has endorsed Feinstein, zinged Wilson, calling his ad “raw lies” and calling for a formal apology.

“Over our strong objection, Pete Wilson is running ads claiming the Sierra Club agrees with him on sewage,” Sierra Club state director Michael Paparian said in a statement. “He knows that the Sierra Club does not agree with him on this issue, and he ran the ads anyway.”

Wilson’s ad takes advantage of the Sierra Club’s recent announcement that it, too, would oppose a court order that would force the city to spend $2.8 billion installing a secondary treatment system. It is a question of method, Sierra Club spokesmen say: the group still supports upgrading the system, but favors a less expensive plan that would stress conservation and retrofitting area homes.

That approach is hardly similar to that of Wilson, who has long held that secondary treatment is unneeded here because natural ocean currents dissolve and dilute human waste and bacteria. And yet, Wilson’s campaign argues that the Sierra Club and Wilson “agree” in their opposition to the court-ordered plan--and the ad is worded accordingly.

“Wilson refused to waste tax dollars on water treatment that scientists and the Sierra Club agreed were unneeded,” the ad says.

The Sierra Club objects, however, to what it says is the underlying message of the ad: that Wilson has the environmental group’s support. Paparian said he has sent letters to Wilson asking him to correct his statements--to no avail. But Paparian will get some satisfaction, predicted Bill Livingstone, Wilson’s press secretary: coincidentally, the “rebuttal” ad is not scheduled for any more air time, Livingstone said, because Wilson’s campaign has two new ads.

“I bet the Sierra Club will take credit for it,” he said.

Earlier in the week, meanwhile, a quartet of San Diego tourism officials and businessmen sent an angry letter to Feinstein’s Los Angeles headquarters. The letter protested what they called her ad’s “misleading” and “irresponsible” portrayal of Mission Bay.

“By your actions in airing this commercial, you are damaging the reputation of California’s most beautiful aquatic park,” says the letter, which adds that the 1,800 sewage spills into Mission Bay that occurred from 1983 to 1988 “have certainly not resulted in (the bay’s) substantial or continued pollution.”

San Diegans will probably notice other problems with the Feinstein ad. In the opening shot, Mission Bay’s blue water slowly turns to red as an announcer says, “It’s a sea of red ink because Pete Wilson ignored San Diego’s sewage problems and tried to avoid the federal Clean Water Act.”

In fact, as Wilson’s campaign points out, his efforts to obtain a waiver to exempt San Diego from certain federal Clean Water Act requirements had no immediate impact on Mission Bay--San Diego’s sewage is not pumped into the bay, but into the open ocean off Point Loma.

Even if Wilson had installed a secondary treatment system when he was mayor--thus taking advantage of federal funds that are now unavailable--that would not have ended the spills into Mission Bay that result from the city’s antiquated sewage pipes.

Wilson has called Feinstein’s linking of the two issues “intellectually dishonest,” but on Wednesday his press secretary attributed it to ignorance.

“She thinks since 80% of San Francisco’s sewage goes into the bay, that’s what happens here,” Livingstone said. “She doesn’t have any idea of the geography of San Diego.”

Feinstein’s campaign stands by the ad and will continue to broadcast it, said Bill Carrick, Feinstein’s campaign manager. Carrick acknowledged that the ad addresses two issues--sewage treatment and sewage spills--but says it is not misleading about Wilson.

“It’s all about his stewardship of the city when he was mayor,” Carrick said. “We think the twin problems are traceable back to the Wilson years.”

He added, “There’s one difference between their ad and ours. Theirs has a lie in it.”