Discovery of Pollution Prompts Cleanup Order for Copper Firm

State investigators have found extraordinarily high levels of copper in shellfish and sediment in San Diego Bay, and have given a copper-transport business one month to determine the extent of the damage and prepare a plan and schedule for cleaning it up.

Health and water-quality officials described the contamination as the worst they had seen, and said the levels could kill marine life in part of the bay, which is a popular fishing area. But they said the concentrations in fish and shellfish pose no threat to human health.

“If they’re catching the fish and the fish are alive, that wouldn’t affect public health,” said Gary Stephany, in charge of environmental health for the county. “The fish would (have to be) floating on the surface. That, right away, would tell people something was wrong.”

In a letter dated July 16, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board informed Paco Terminal Inc., 2720 Terminal Ave. in National City, that tests showed that copper levels had increased thirteenfold over the last six years in the waters around the 6-year-old copper-transfer facility.

The board blamed the pollution on Paco Terminal, saying it resulted either from the company’s failure to follow anti-pollution measures ordered by the state, or from shortcomings in those measures. It also accused Paco of violating its state pollution-control permit.

Paco has until Aug. 15 to assess the extent of contamination and come up with a cleanup schedule and plan, the board said. Glenn M. Howell, general manager of Paco Terminal, said through an intermediary Wednesday that he did not want to comment on the board’s allegations.

Tests showed that copper levels had increased thirteenfold over the last six years. Meanwhile, state investigators hope to determine within two weeks the source of unsafe levels of cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) found in mussels and sediment in another part of the bay, near Lindbergh Field.

There is no connection between the PCBs and the copper-transport facility.

The documented PCB levels in the Convair Lagoon have dropped over the last year, from more than 3 parts per million (ppm) last year in mussel tests to 2.1 ppm this year, Stephany said.

However, he said federal environmental officials recently lowered the levels considered unsafe from 5 ppm to 2 ppm, prompting Stephany’s office on Wednesday to distribute signs warning against eating fish caught in the lagoon. He said divers said there appeared to be few shellfish in the area, which is near the Coast Guard station and is used for storing impounded boats.

“It’s really a kind of a precautionary thing,” he said. “We don’t think people fish in the area.”

Officials said they do not know where the PCBs came from or when they got there. David T. Barker, a water quality board engineer, said investigators have also found PCBs in nearby storm drains that are connected to nearby aircraft facilities.

He said some of those facilities use PCBs as a flame retardant in transformers.

“Based on the fact that it’s gone down in a year, the premise, I believe, is that it probably was some kind of a spill,” Stephany said.

According to Barker, the water quality board first noticed rising copper levels several years ago in the board’s statewide “mussel watch” program, in which investigators use pristine mussels to measure changes in levels of certain pollutants.

Mussels accumulate toxins in their tissue because they take in vast quantities of water and filter it to find minute bits of food. For that reason, Stephany said, concentrations in mussels would represent the worst case among shellfish.

Barker said sediment testing showed that the levels of naturally occurring copper were 110 milligrams per kilogram in 1979, shortly before Paco opened its terminal. He said the levels rose steadily, reaching as high as 141,000 milligrams per kilogram in tests this year.

Barker said 141,000 was the highest level found. The board said the average level was 13,717, which it said represented a 1,250% increase over the 1979 level. Barker and others said those levels are toxic to marine life.

“I think it’s safe to say that 141,000 milligrams per kilogram would be toxic to most benthic organisms,” said Dwayne Maxwell, a biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game in Long Beach. Benthic organisms are bottom-dwellers, such as algae, worms and sea anemones.

Maxwell said that level would also kill shellfish. He said he had never heard of a copper-pollution level that high.

Copper poisoning can be lethal in humans in large doses, Stephany said. In lower doses, it causes nausea, dizziness and other symptoms. He and others said a person would have to eat massive amounts of fish to become ill from consuming the concentrations found in mussels.

Barker said it is unclear how far the copper contamination may have spread. However, the board believes that the copper has entered the “water column.” Maxwell said he had heard that it may have spread far enough to make it unfeasible to dredge as a method of cleanup.

Paco Terminal ships approximately 140,000 tons of copper ore through the terminal annually, said Barker. He said the ore is mined in the United States and shipped by rail to the terminal, where it is loaded onto ships bound for both foreign and domestic ports.

Barker said the board issued Paco a waste-discharge permit before it opened in 1979. He said the permit barred discharge of copper into the bay, and required that the company develop management practices to insure that no copper got in.

Those practices were to include filtering storm runoff into storm drains at the terminal, covering piles of copper ore to prevent it from blowing off in wind or running off in rain, and cleaning up residual copper ore with street sweepers after loading, the letter said.

Fines for violation of such permits can go as high as $10,000 a day per violation, Barker said. However, he said the board is not considering a fine. He said Paco is cooperating with the board and has hired a consultant to study the problem.