Short take: City reports its fewest sewage spills in decade
By: Rob Davis

SAN DIEGO: San Diego posted its best sewage-spill figures of the decade last year, Mayor Jerry Sanders said yesterday.

The city reported 38 spills last year, down from 365 in 2000 and 62 in 2008.

San Diego Baykeeper — now Coastkeeper — and the Surfrider Foundation sued the city in 2001 for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act after a 34 million-gallon sewage spill polluted the San Diego River and local beaches.

San Diego officials responded with a spill-reduction program that includes cleaning the city’s entire 3,000-mile sewage system, snaking cameras into many of the oldest pipes to look for trouble spots and tripling the amount of pipe replaced.

Yesterday, Sanders praised the Metropolitan Wastewater Department for continuing to reduce the number of spills. Each avoided spill saves an average of $2,695 in response and cleanup costs, according to city figures.