Storm Halts Repair of Sewer in San Diego; Spill Continues

A massive storm, expected to bring heavy rain for the rest of the week, halted repair work Monday on a broken sewage pipe, which was still gushing more than 180 million gallons a day of partly treated sewage into the ocean.

The storm also forced the indefinite closure of a pump station that treats 12 million gallons of Tijuana’s raw sewage each day. That sewage overflow mixed with floodwaters to add another 100 million gallons a day or more to the contaminated offshore waters.

Bacterial counts remained dangerously high, and county health authorities kept a quarantine on 20 miles of coastline from the U.S.-Mexico border to the San Diego River near Ocean Beach.

San Diego’s sewage spill was first detected on Feb. 2, when the entire flow from the nine-foot-diameter reinforced concrete pipe began pouring out of broken sections of the pipe.

Gary Stephany, environmental services director for the county Department of Health Services, said bacteria readings Monday were 16 times the legal limit from Imperial Beach to Coronado.

Stephany said the coming storm “will play havoc the rest of the week.” After the last storm, “our (bacterial) counts in that direction went sky-high.”

The crisis continues to affect concerns about the city’s image. Local officials reported thousands of calls from travel agencies and tourists asking whether they should cancel plans.

“People from all over the nation are canceling trips to this area,” said Deputy City Manager Roger Frauenfelder, “and, well, they shouldn’t do that.”

The repair crew’s barge abandoned the site over the break Sunday because of nine-foot swells. Despite the delays, officials hope to have the pipe repaired by early April and the Tijuana pump station in operation by the end of the week.