Broken Sewage Line Repaired After Big Spill

SAN DIEGO —  Pump Station 64 in this city’s Sorrento Valley resumed pumping sewage Friday after a square-foot hole in a 30-inch outtake pipe was sealed by crews that worked through the night to stem the record spill.

But about 1 1/2 miles of the Torrey Pines State Beach, as far north as Del Mar, will remain quarantined for at least nine days, officials said.

The break, which occurred Thursday morning, spilled between 20 million and 25 million gallons of raw, untreated sewage into the canyon that feeds into the Los Penasquitos Lagoon between Torrey Pines State Beach and Del Mar. The sewage spill is a record for the City of San Diego and is among the largest in state history.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board is scheduled to consider in April whether to assess the city $800,000 in fines because of the sewage spill, the most serious yet in a continuing series that has plagued the pump station.

The break occurred after a succession of brief power outages allowed sewage that was being pumped uphill and out of the plant to flow back down into it. The backed-up sewage created enough pressure to crack the pipe.