San Diego Sewage Spill Grows : Pollution: Residents are asked to conserve water to reduce flow in ruptured pipeline. A state of emergency is requested.

San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor asked Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday to declare a state of emergency here, as up to 180 million gallons a day of partially treated sewage continued spewing into the ocean less than three-quarters of a mile offshore.

Experts called it one of the worst such spills in the nation’s history.

Sources in the governor’s office said Wilson is expected to sign the declaration as early as today. The City Council met in emergency session Wednesday, when O’Connor said she plans to ask state officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help pay for the estimated $10 million in repairs that may take two months to complete.

To reduce the flow through the damaged nine-foot-diameter pipeline, city officials are urging San Diego residents to restrict water use. The 10-point conservation plan includes pleas for three-minute showers, limited toilet flushing and washing machine use, recycling water from baths and sinks, and not using garbage disposals.

The voluntary conservation program will be in effect for five days and is not expected to continue while the broken pipes are being repaired, O’Connor said.

The spill comes during the America’s Cup sailing regatta, which was not suspended, and on the eve of a visit by President Bush, who arrives today to tour a health clinic in a poor neighborhood to introduce an immunization program for children.

The contamination has forced the closure of about 4.5 miles of the city’s coastline, and although numerous signs warn surfers, swimmers and boaters, surfers were still in the waters Wednesday.

Contact with the fecal coliform bacteria in such sewage can cause a variety of water-borne diseases ranging from gastrointestinal disorders to dysentery, hepatitis and typhoid.

The spill, which began late Sunday, reached crisis proportions Tuesday, when engineers discovered ruptures in 19 sections of the huge reinforced concrete pipe that carries most of San Diego County’s effluent to a point 2.2 miles off the coast at a depth of 220 feet. The city’s sewage system serves 1.7 million people.

Health authorities said all the effluent--from which 75% to 80% of solids have been removed--is being deposited 3,150 feet from the rocky cliffs of Point Loma, at a depth of 35 feet, forcing the closure of much of the city’s coastline.

County health officials said Wednesday that the spill is flowing toward the North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado, and because of high tides, it had begun to penetrate San Diego Bay. Pending test results, however, levels of bacteria have not been determined.

David Skelly, a coastal engineer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, called the spill an environmental disaster, and other officials labeled the break in the massive pipe a rupture of catastrophic proportions.

Dan Avera, assistant deputy director for the San Diego County Department of Health Services, said experts are checking test samples around the clock, and he warned consumers to avoid eating sushi or other raw fish, and in particular, clams, mussels and scallops.

Federal and local officials said that although the waste is 80% free of solids, the spill remains one of the worst in the nation’s history and constitutes what EPA spokesman Bill Glenn said is “a serious, emergency condition we’re working quickly to address.”

Glenn said the prospect of federal funds being dispatched to San Diego is “being looked at. . . . We just don’t know yet.”

Roger Frauenfelder, a deputy city manager, said Wednesday that a repair crew will begin work as early as today at a “start-up” cost of $1 million. Frauenfelder said it was premature to estimate the total repair cost but added that a ballpark figure was $10 million.

San Diego City Manager Jack McGrory said the pipe was inspected last year and “everything checked out fine.” The pipe is made of 25-foot sections that weigh 30 tons each. McGrory said the pipe was installed in 1963 and had “performed perfectly--it had never ruptured.”

City officials said nothing could have been done to prevent the rupture, which was detected by the Coast Guard on Sunday night and confirmed Monday afternoon. They blamed the leak on external forces, such as the settling of the ocean floor combining with the pressure of effluent to dislodge joints in 19 sections of the pipe.

“The most likely guess is settlement on the ocean floor,” said McGrory. “. . . There was settlement under one section of pipe and the pipe began to sag.”

Two companies have been hired to repair the broken pipe and estimated the work will take six to eight weeks. McGrory said Morrison-Knudsen, the Boise, Ida., company that lost the Metro Green Line contract to Sumitomo Corp., and Manson Construction of Long Beach have been hired to make the repairs.

He added that Manson officials expect to have a 600-ton construction barge in place over the broken pipe by noon today. According to McGrory, the two companies repaired a similar break in a sewage pipeline extending from Hilo, Hawaii, into the Pacific in 1987.

The biggest concern voiced Wednesday was over a winter storm expected to hit San Diego today. O’Connor said officials fear further damage to the pipe if the storm generates strong waves.

“We are concerned about further damage to the pipeline closer to the shore,” said McGrory, the city manager.

Officials fear that if that happens treated sewage could be sent flowing north toward the beaches of La Jolla, Del Mar and Carlsbad.

In Sacramento, Wilson stopped short of signing the state of emergency declaration, but sources indicated he would do so as early as today.

“Obviously, he knows quite a bit about the sewage issue,” press secretary Bill Livingstone said. “It seems that San Diego has had more than its share of troubles with problems dealing with sewage. He worked year after year to finally get funding to take care of the Tijuana sewage problem, and now this comes forward.”

Livingstone and officials for the newly formed Cal/EPA said they were checking to see if the state could arrange some kind of financing to help the city repair the pipe.

“It (repairing the pipe) is a pretty massive undertaking,” said Bob Borzelleri, Cal/EPA spokesman. “It’s a massive event and it’s going to take a lot of cooperation between everybody who has the technical ability and resources to address the problem.”

Meanwhile, the regional office of the state Department of Fish and Game dispatched a biologist to the San Diego shoreline to determine what effect the sewage might have on wildlife. An official from the regional Water Quality Control Board has been helping monitor concentrations of sewage in the water.

John Passerello, assistant director of the state’s Office of Emergency Services, said his agency is also poised to help.

“We’re checking with the city of San Diego and the county of San Diego to see what actions they are taking and what assistance they need for the state,” he said.

Charles Warren, executive officer of the State Lands Commission, said he has given the city permission to take “whatever steps are necessary” to fix the broken pipe. The state agency controls all land extending three miles into the ocean from the shore, and had leased a tract off Point Loma to the city for construction of the pipeline.

Near the spill, dozens of surfers in search of waves ignored posted warnings that the contaminated water poses serious dangers.

“Yeah, but the waves are good,” said 46-year-old Don Rickert as he waxed his 9 1/2-foot Diffenderfer board.

Tom Ehman, executive vice president of the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, said the spill is not expected to hinder racing, “although it may be rather unpleasant for skippers making their way three to six miles out to sea, which is where the course is.”

Times staff writers H.G. Reza and Jonathan Gaw in San Diego and Ralph Frammolino in Sacramento contributed to this report.

Ruptured Pipeline

San Diego’s massive spill treated sewage, which began over the weekend, has become one of the worst in the nation’s history. As much as 180 million gallons of effluent is spewing daily out of ruptured sections of a pipe that normally pumps the waste 2.2 miles from shore.

* Movement: The effluent is flowing toward Coronado.

* Impact: Water conversation measures are urged to reduce the amount of sewage sent through the San Diego County system.