A Sewage System With a Foul Record : Latest spill underscores need to reverse years of complacency by San Diego’s leaders

A better exclamation point for federal Judge Rudi Brewster’s scathing criticisms of San Diego’s sewage system would have been tough to find.

Just two days after Brewster fined the city $3 million for a long history of spills and Clean Water Act violations, a broken sewer main went unchecked for 48 hours. More than 5 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the San Diego River and eventually into the ocean before the leak was stopped.

It was one of the largest spills in city history and forced the closure of portions of Ocean Beach.

That one spill exceeded the 4.7 million gallons of raw sewage spilled in 325 incidents between July 1 and Feb. 28.

Judge Brewster was right on target when he called the city a “perpetual violator” with an “outrageous record.”

Since 1983, the city has had more than 3,700 spills, and almost 90 million gallons of raw sewage have reached public waters.

The spills have brought repeated fines and reprimands from state and federal agencies. Recent improvements have been made--deteriorating pipes have been replaced and new policies have been designed to help prevent spills.

But each step was taken at gunpoint. “The city has maintained a policy of inaction except when action was literally forced upon it by state and federal orders, directives, sanctions and threats of more severe enforcement measures,” Brewster noted.

The gun may still be needed.

Despite spending tens of millions of dollars to replace pipes and improve maintenance on the metropolitan system since 1987, the city still has an abnormally high number of spills, according to the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

San Diego has more spills than the city of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County or Orange County.

From 1987 to mid-1990, San Diego’s Metropolitan Sewerage System--which has 2,400 miles of sewer pipes serving the city and 15 other agencies--averaged 18 spills greater than 1,000 gallons each month. The city of Los Angeles, with 6,400 miles of sewers, averaged only 0.6 spills a month.

This most recent San Diego sewer main break may not have been avoidable. Storms washed away the soil supporting the pipe, apparently causing the break.

But the communications breakdown that allowed a reported spill to contaminate the San Diego River and beach waters with disease-laden raw sewage for two days before signs were posted and repair work begun was avoidable.

San Diego is reaping the legacy of “decades of failed political leadership,” as Brewster put it. And it will be for some time to come.

Reversing years of complacency will take years.

RAW SEWAGE OVERFLOWS Spills of more than 1,000 gallons from early 1987 to mid-1990

Agency Monthly Average Average Gallons City of San Diego 18.0 295,000 City of Los Angeles 0.6 238,000 Los Angeles County 1.2 10,700 Los Angeles County Sanitation District 0.4 13,500 Orange County Sanitation District 0.5 41,000

Source: California Regional Water Quality Board