Quarantine Lifted on 9 Miles of Coast : Spills: Water in South Bay area shows low fecal coliform counts. Ocean Beach, Sunset Cliffs and Point Loma beaches remain closed.

County health officials Tuesday lifted the quarantine on almost half of the 20 miles of coastline that were closed to swimmers after a rupture in an outfall pipe and raw sewage from Tijuana combined to contaminate beaches between San Diego and the U.S.-Mexico border.

Dan Avera, spokesman for the San Diego County Department of Health Services, said the ban was lifted on about nine miles of beaches in the South Bay because water samples taken on Monday showed low fecal coliform counts.

The quarantine was lifted at beaches in Coronado, the Silver Strand and Imperial Beach, Avera said. Specifically, the coast from the North Island Naval Air Station to Seacoast Drive in Imperial Beach is open to swimmers again.

However, a beach area about 2 1/2 miles long, from the U.S.-Mexico border north to Seacoast Drive in Imperial Beach, remains closed, Avera added. Sewage from Tijuana, some of it raw, overflows into the river and is carried out to the Pacific Ocean.

In addition, San Diego beaches at Ocean Beach, Sunset Cliffs and Point Loma remain closed because of high fecal coliform counts from the broken outfall pipe off Point Loma, which is spewing 180 million gallons of partially treated sewage a day into the Pacific, said Avera. The closed beaches will remain under quarantine until water samples show there is no danger of bacteria contamination, he said.

On Tuesday, San Diego city officials also announced that at 1:30 p.m., the Point Loma sewage treatment plant once again began treating Mexican sewage. Under an agreement with Mexico, San Diego treats about 12 million gallons of Tijuana sewage daily.

The binational pump station on the Tijuana River that diverts Mexican sewage to the city’s treatment plant was closed Feb. 6 by heavy rains. Until the station was opened again Tuesday, the raw sewage normally diverted to the San Diego treatment plant--all 12 million gallons--was gushing down the Tijuana River into the ocean.

“The Tijuana sewage is being treated once again,” said Kim Shea, spokeswoman for the city’s water utilities department. “The Tijuana River pump station went back on line today (Tuesday).”

The ruptured outfall pipe is releasing about 180 million gallons of treated sewage about 3,150 feet offshore every day, at a depth of about 35 feet. Normally, the sewage is discharged 2.2 miles into the ocean at a depth of 220 feet.

Shea said repairs to the pipe will be completed by the first week in April. Most of the $10 million in repairs is expected to be covered by state and federal funds.

Although officials said earlier that they expected to replace 22 sections of pipe, Shea said Tuesday that only 18 sections will need to be replaced. Each of the damaged sections is 25 feet long, and they will be replaced with new pipes that are 20 feet long, Shea said. The pipes are made from reinforced concrete.

As of Tuesday, 16 of the damaged sections had been brought to the surface, she said.

City Manager Jack McGrory and other city officials said the break was caused by settlement on the ocean floor combined with strong ocean currents during low tides. In addition, there is a possibility the pipe was hit by a ship’s anchor.

But workers at the sewage treatment plant claim the break was caused by a massive air bubble inside the pipe caused by an improper diversion of sewage.

Although county health officials have given swimmers the green light to enter the water around Coronado, Navy SEALs spokesman Cmdr. Bob Pritchard said members of the elite unit have no plans to resume water training for a while.

“We’re still on a wait-and-see mode. We’re going to opt on the side of caution. Because of the extended exposure to the water, we want to make sure that it’s absolutely safe for our people before we resume (water) training,” said Pritchard.

Nancy Weisinger, spokeswoman for the Hotel del Coronado, said hotel officials welcomed the lifting of the quarantine, even though the ban had not imposed an economic hardship on the beachside hotel.

“Good, that means people can go swimming again,” she said. “But the quarantine didn’t really affect us. Both of our pools are heated and they’ve always been open. . . . Guests didn’t really complain. We were very fortunate that we didn’t get any cancellations or angry guests.”

Reint Reinders, president of the Convention & Visitors Bureau, called the quarantine “a non-event.”

“It really has had no impact (on tourism). Oh, we have received some calls, but people want to know how it would impact their travel,” Reinders said. “The majority of people weren’t planning to go in the water because of the cold weather we’ve had. But now that we’ve got this beautiful, warm weather, it’s certainly good news that it has been lifted in some areas.”

Repairing the Breaks

Eighteen 25-foot sections of damaged pipe will be replaced by new sections of pipe that are 20 feet long. The work is taking place 3,150 feet from shore in 35 feet of water.

1) Ballast rock from Santa Catalina Island has been lowered into place along the 500-foot stretch of damaged pipeline.

2) Damaged sections are lifted to the surface after being secured in a “saddle” lowered from the barge.

3) New sections of pipe are lowered and connected to the pipeline. The repaired section of pipe will be placed in a cradle of ballast rock to help secure it to the ocean floor.

Source: Kurt Kidman, city of San Diego Water Utilities Department

The Spill at a Glance

Days: 24

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

Cumulative: As of Tuesday, 4.32 billion gallons.

Tijuana spill: A pumping station that diverts Tijuana sewage to the Point Loma treatment plant was turned back on Tuesday. Between Feb. 6 and Tuesday, 12 million to 13 million gallons a day of raw sewage was flowing into the ocean.

Coastline closed: Eleven miles: from the mouth of the Tijuana River, near the international border, to Seacoast Drive in Imperial Beach, and from the mouth of the San Diego River in Ocean Beach to Point Loma.

Status of repairs: A deadline of April 4 for completion of repairs has been set. Despite several rain delays, city officials are hopeful of sticking to the deadline. Last week’s efforts recovered several sections of pipe about a mile from shore that bear large scrapes, fueling speculation that a passing ship may have damaged the outfall pipe. Workers also found an unexplained deep gouge on a section of pipe they picked up three-quarters of a mile from shore.

Pipeline repair cost estimate: $10 million.