Warm Weather Draws Crowds to S.D. Beaches : Sunshine: Sunbathers undaunted by quarantine that remains in effect along 20-mile stretch of coastline.

Summertime weather blew into town on Santa Ana winds Sunday, sending thousands of San Diegans to the beach despite sewage contamination warnings and winter water temperatures.

The mercury reached 85 degrees in Del Mar and Chula Vista and 84 in San Diego as Santa Ana winds gusted to 40 m.p.h. in the mountains and blew sand and dust in the desert, causing problems for motorists. Warm, sunny days are expected to remain for the rest of the week.

The 20-mile-long ocean quarantine from the U.S.-Mexico border north to the mouth of the San Diego River remained in effect Sunday, although county health department tests taken over the weekend continued to show safe readings on all beaches except those along Point Loma, directly inshore from the ruptured ocean outfall pipe, about half a mile offshore.

Deputy City Manager Roger Frauenfelder said coliform bacteria counts were “well within safe levels” in city tests reported Sunday morning. He said that the county Department of Health Services would decide whether to lift the ban.

Dan Avera, a spokesman for the department, said he was concerned “that we would be sending the public a mixed message” if the beaches were allowed to reopen, only to be closed a few days later if another wave of storms changed ocean currents and recontaminated the beaches.

Mission Bay readings “are very promising,” and the aquatic park may be reopened to water sports in the near future, Avera said.

“We’ve been chasing them out of the water all day,” state lifeguard Matt Magro said of the would-be bathers along Coronado’s Silver Strand beaches Sunday. He estimated that about 2,000 people remained to enjoy the sand and the view.

Imperial Beach lifeguards to the south of the state beach said beach-goers were ignoring the warning signs in order to swim and surf in the contaminated water. With only a skeleton winter staff on duty, lifeguards were unable to enforce the quarantine, an Imperial Beach lifeguard said.

The beach weather brought out the Sunday drivers and forced San Diego police to issue a Sig Alert along Mission Boulevard as traffic came to a standstill through Mission Beach on Sunday afternoon.

City lifeguards said crowds were nearly at summer levels at Mission Beach, Pacific Beach and La Jolla. Ocean Beach remains closed because of sewage contamination.

Rip currents occurring along San Diego County’s coastline brought 13 lifeguard rescues in Mission Beach, four at Del Mar, three at Pacific Beach and a couple at Oceanside, officials said.

All beaches reported that crowds were the biggest this year but that most people stayed out of the water because of water temperatures ranging between 58 and 60 degrees.

In Oceanside, crowd estimates were 10,000 to 12,000 on the pier and along the strand. Del Mar had an estimated 8,000 visitors. San Diego lifeguards said they were too busy with rescues and patrols to conduct a head count.

Work is progressing on schedule in repairing the ocean outfall line, Frauenfelder said. Crews in a barge anchored over the pipeline rupture continued 12-hour work shifts over the weekend removing sections of the damaged line in advance of preparing the ocean floor with additional ballast before relaying the repaired pipe. Pipe-laying will probably begin early next week if the weather permits. Completion of the outfall is scheduled for early April, Frauenfelder said.

City utility crews also are scheduled Monday to divert about 13 million gallons a day of sewage-tainted water from the Tijuana River if the border river subsides from its floodwater flows of about 28 million gallons a day.

The diversion system, begun in October, pipes the water laden with raw sewage to the Point Loma treatment plant for processing. The diversion should clear up coliform counts in the Imperial Beach and Silver Strand areas, allowing those beaches to reopen, Avera said.