Going to Source of Sewage Leak Is Dirty Job, but Someone’s Got to Do It, Divers Say

If it weren’t for all the sewage, it would have been a routine dive.

Robert Richards inspects several underwater sewage outfall pipes in San Diego County on an annual basis, and every now and then he and his diving partner, Jim Roth, have to patch up a leak of a few inches in diameter.

But when he saw the Monday night newscast of the effluent bubbling up in the water off Point Loma, he knew his assignment at work the next day would be anything but routine.

“From the engineering standpoint and one of personal and professional curiosity and problem-solving . . . I look forward to stuff like that,” said Richards, director of ocean engineering for Pelagos Corp., which was hired by the city of San Diego to inspect the damage. “But I wouldn’t be upset if that happened not to have been effluent.”

He and Roth were the first people to see the damage to the outfall pipe.

The two divers set out in a 30-foot boat early Tuesday to the site where effluent was welling up from 35 feet below, about 3,150 feet from shore and the E. W. Blom Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“It smelled, well, like sewage . . . just like the plant,” said the 32-year-old Richards, who has been diving since he was 14.

“With a boil like that, yes, I was hesitant, and we were very careful, very cautious before we went down there,” he said. The swelling of the warm effluent to the surface produced a tremendous suction of water near the ocean floor, requiring caution, Richards said.

Donned in watertight dry suits, their skin sealed off from the contaminated water, Richards and Roth made five dives on Tuesday and another five on Wednesday.

As the effluent swirled up from the pipe and darkened the water, the neon-green gloves of the divers helped them keep in contact as they mapped and filmed the damage, which includes holes large enough to walk through.

No patch would do here.

“When we first heard of it, we didn’t expect (the damage) . . . would be to the extent that it was. No one expected to see what we saw there,” said Richards, a muscular man with short-cropped hair who has a degree in ocean engineering.

Once the job was completed and the men were back in their boat, they scrubbed each other down with soap, water and a chemical cleaning agent while still in their suits.

“Basically, it was a standard inspection dive. I had no problems with it at all. It’s just another day of diving . . . a walk in the park,” said Roth, a lanky 33-year-old with long brown hair and a mustache who has been diving commercially for seven years.

Pelagos Corp., based in Kearny Mesa, is one of a handful of U.S. firms that offer an array of offshore programs, including hydrographic, geophysical, geological and oceanographic services.

The 30-employee firm, established in 1977, has been involved in numerous underwater projects around the world for both private companies and government agencies, including the search for parts of space shuttle Challenger after it exploded in 1986.

Pelagos will continue to play a role in the repair of the pipe, but it is unclear what that role will be since repair plans have not been laid out, said Randy Ashley, vice president of the firm.

“We’re still kind of inventorying what’s down there, and we probably will be involved in the continued inspection of the repairs as they install the pipe. But things are changing quickly,” Ashley said.