Avoid All Pipe Dreams : Workers do a great job but San Diego has more to do

Homeowners who have tried their hand at fixing backed-up plumbing can only imagine the nightmarish repair job that faced divers replacing 20 sections of concrete sewage pipe, 35 feet below the ocean’s surface off San Diego, as millions of gallons of partially treated sewage swirled around them.

For two months, 70 divers, pipe layers, tugboat skippers, helicopter pilots, engineers, technicians and tradesmen worked around the clock.

Yet despite the enormity of the job-- and delays caused by several storms-- workers finished the repairs right on schedule. The last nine-foot-in-diameter pipe section was installed Saturday, the target date set by the City of San Diego shortly after the massive pipe break and sewage spill were discovered Feb. 2. This halted one of the nation’s worst sewage spills ever, a breakdown that contributed to the closing of nearly 20 miles of shoreline. Once again, the 180 million gallons of effluent that comes out of San Diego each day is being carried 2.2 miles out to sea instead of being dumped in relatively shallow waters just 3,150 feet from shore.

The city had little choice but to take fast action. It had a federal judge looking over its shoulder because of its poor record on sewage spills and treatment. What’s more, spring break and the summer swimming season loomed.

But though the damage to the pipe has been repaired on schedule and health authorities are gradually reopening San Diego’s shoreline, there is no assurance that future spills will not happen. For starters, authorities must make sure that the report on the cause of the rupture is an unvarnished analysis, then they must see that a parallel, back-up pipe is built as fast as possible.

Restoring public and tourist industry confidence in the safety of Southern California beaches will depend, in large part, on how well San Diego learns from this disaster.