Outfall Pipe Repairs Are Put on Hold : Spill: Large storm system continues to hamper repair effort. Officials remain hopeful of having the pipe repaired by early April.

A large storm system, expected to bring heavy rain the rest of the week, postponed efforts Monday to repair a sewage outfall pipe that continued to spew as much as 180 million gallons a day of effluent into the sea, three-quarters of a mile off Point Loma.

Bad weather also forced the indefinite closure of a binational pump station that normally pumps 12 million gallons a day of Tijuana sewage to the Point Loma plant for treatment. The raw sewage, mixed with flood waters, is now pouring into the Pacific at the border at the rate of 100 million gallons a day.

As a result, bacterial counts at the Imperial Beach pier and in Coronado remained dangerously high, and county health authorities continued to quarantine 20 miles of coastline, extending from the border to the San Diego River, in Ocean Beach.

Gary Stephany, environmental services director for the county Department of Health Services, said fecal coliform bacteria counts were 16 times the legal limit in Imperial Beach and Coronado, and along the Silver Strand connecting the two cities.

“But I know they were much higher,” Stephany said. “At a certain point, we just stopped counting.”

Bacterial counts at the Point Loma spill site itself--3,150 feet from the shore at a depth of 35 feet--were lower than expected Sunday and Monday, but Stephany said oncoming storms “will play havoc the rest of the week.”

“If the sewage stays close to the surface, wind is what we fear,” Stephany said. “If the sewage is heavy below the surface, then ocean currents carry more impact in moving it around. After the last storm (of last week), the stuff was driven in a northerly direction, and our counts in that direction went sky high.”

State health authorities have continued to quarantine fish and marine life in the 20-mile zone, extending three miles out to sea. Stephany said fishermen are urged not to harvest marine life near the kelp beds in the quarantined area “unless the counts indicate otherwise.”

City Manager Jack McGrory announced at Monday’s San Diego council meeting that the city has entered into an “emergency contract” with Scripps Institution of Oceanography to “determine the effect of the (sewage) discharge on the kelp forest and the near-shore environment.”

He said two scientists from Scripps will act as liaisons in updating the city on environmental repercussions.

The National Park Service on Monday closed the tide pools at Cabrillo National Monument until the pipe is repaired because of what official Terry DiMattio called “the hazard this poses to human health.”

DiMattio said visitors are “prohibited from entering the tide pools and from fishing along the shore.”

Signs warning visitors of contaminated water have been posted, and DiMattio said rangers “are advising visitors to stay away from the water and areas where they may be sprayed by the surf.”

DiMattio said that schoolchildren often tour the tide pools to see “sea hares, limpets, anemones and other fascinating creatures.” He said schools in the area have been notified of the closure.

San Diego’s sewage break was first detected Feb. 2, when the entire flow from the reinforced concrete pipe--as much as 180 million gallons a day of effluent, from which 80% of the solids have been removed--began pouring out three-quarters of a mile offshore, a mile north of Cabrillo National Monument.

Divers later confirmed ruptures in 21 sections of pipe, which normally discharges the effluent 2.2 miles out to sea, at a depth of 220 feet. The pipe, each section 25 feet long and weighing 30 tons, serves 1.7 million people and most of the cities in San Diego County.

Officials said the pipe had never broken since being installed in 1963, although engineers warned the city as long as two years ago about corrosion in the pipe and that the growth of the region was pushing the system to capacity.

Some experts have called the break an “environmental disaster,” though others say the problem is only temporary and the ocean will recover quickly once the pipe is fixed. What is certain is that the sewage spill is one of the worst in the the nation.

The crisis continues to have an impact on concerns about the city’s image. City officials report thousands of calls from travel agencies and would-be tourists from all over the country about whether they should cancel already-made plans and book holidays elsewhere.

“We’re trying to be positive about the break,” Deputy City Manager Roger Frauenfelder said Monday. “The image out there now is hurting us as a community. People from all over the nation are canceling trips to this area, and, well, they shouldn’t do that.

“I wouldn’t change any plans to visit San Diego, knowing what I know about the current situation. The crews working on the pipe are just doing a super job.”

Crews began working late Friday from a 100-foot-by-300-foot barge but were forced to abandon the effort Sunday because of 9-foot swells. Officials said Monday that repair work has been put off indefinitely. Once the work begins again, the crew will use 1-ton ballast rocks from Santa Catalina Island to stabilize the pipe.

Despite the delays, officials remain hopeful of having the pipe repaired by early April and the Tijuana pump station operational by the end of this week.

The San Diego City Council voted unanimously Monday to offer “assistance, mutual aid, equipment and crews” to Mexican officials to ease the environmental effects of sewage runoff from Tijuana, now and in the future. City officials tried to distinguish their own problem from that of Mexico’s.

Despite low bacterial counts Monday in Ocean Beach, City Manager McGrory and others said incoming storms were expected to have the same effect as Thursday’s rains, which pushed the counts far above the legal limit.

Alan Langworthy, deputy water utilities director for the city of San Diego, said rain had forced the repair barge to dock at a nearby Navy yard and that the outlook of making repairs was “very gloomy” for the rest of the week.

Times staff writer Mark Platte contributed to this article.

The Spill at a Glance

Days: 10

Amount: Daily, an estimated 180 million gallons of partially treated sewage.

Cumulative: 1.80 billion gallons.

Tijuana spill: Since Thursday, 12 million gallons a day of raw sewage, mixed with flood waters to create more than 100 million gallons a day of contaminated runoff.

Coastline closed: 20 miles, from the mouth of the Tijuana River, near the international border, to the mouth of the San Diego River in Ocean Beach.

Status of repairs: The massive repair barge is docked on Navy property indefinitely after 9-foot swells Sunday night forced it to shore. When repairs resume, divers will continue photographing the 21 sections of pipe that came apart beginning Feb. 2. Ballast rock from Santa Catalina Island will be used to stabilize undamaged sections of pipe.

A pumping station in Tijuana might be fixed by the end of the week. It will then send the raw sewage to the Point Loma plant for treatment.

Cost estimate: $10 million.