S.D. to Seek U.S. Funds for Pipeline : Sewage: Council vote for outfall extension follows move to reduce cost of federally mandated upgrading.

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday authorized the city manager to apply for a federal grant to help pay for an extension of the Point Loma sewage outfall pipe.

The council voted, 7 to 0, to request federal funding for the controversial extension and put off allocating expenditures for improvements related to the Clean Water Program. Mayor Maureen O’Connor and Councilwoman Judy McCarty were absent.

Tuesday’s vote followed Monday’s contentious session in which the council took tentative action aimed at reducing the cost of a $2.5-billion-plus federally mandated sewage system treatment upgrading by more than half.

On Tuesday, the council officially postponed awarding bids for the outfall extension and put off making other improvements in connection with the municipal sewer system.

That action merely permits City Manager Jack McGrory to ask the federal government for funds with which to begin extending the outfall pipe from its existing 2.2 miles to more than 4 miles offshore.

The 29-year-old outfall pipe, which serves 1.7 million residents in San Diego County, ruptured Feb. 2, sending up to 180 million gallons a day of partly treated waste spewing into the ocean only 3,100 feet off shore until its repair was completed on April 4.

The cause of the break, which produced one of the worst sewage spills in the nation’s history, is being investigated by an independent firm. Its report is due in mid-May.

The council agreed Monday to seek a waiver eliminating the need for secondary treatment at its Point Loma treatment plant and to push ahead with an extension of the outfall pipe as the primary component of its sewage system upgrade.

In recent weeks, the city has vacillated between building a tunnel well beneath the ocean floor or merely extending the existing pipeline, which would be several million dollars cheaper.

Any change in the city’s plans will have to be approved by federal environmental regulators and U.S. District Judge Rudi M. Brewster, who is overseeing a federal lawsuit against the city over its sewage system.

The council angered much of a packed gallery Tuesday by putting off until May 12 a proposal to renovate and reopen the Balboa Theatre and delayed until June 15 a discussion of issues surrounding a low-level radioactive waste site in Ward Valley.