Morro Bay: Rough Water

Fishermen in Morro Bay on California’s central coast have been hit hard by a state order to stop harvesting shellfish in polluted local waters. What’s worse, local, state and federal agencies can’t agree on what to do about the pollution.

Recent studies found that the waters of Morro Bay contain up to 10 times the fecal coliform bacteria that state law permits, and shellfish in the area have been found with up to 1,000 times the allowable amount. The state Department of Health Services temporarily banned the harvesting of Morro Bay mussels and clams in October. Because the pollution still exists, the ban is likely to be extended this week.

No fewer than four government agencies are at odds over how to clean up the bay. Health department officials, supported by the federal Food and Drug Administration, believe the cause of the contamination to be the city of Morro Bay’s sewage-treatment plant, which three years ago stopped treating its sewage with chlorine before dumping it into the ocean north of the bay. The state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which both gave Morro Bay permission to stop chlorinating its sewage, insist that the problem stems from other sources--particularly farms in the area.

Wherever the source, it is clearly in nobody’s interest to delay dealing with it any longer. While the state and federal agencies wrangle over the precise cause of the bay’s contamination, Morro Bay officials should spend the $15,000 that it would cost to chlorinate their sewage plant’s outfall for a year. That would let local fishermen earn a living while the agencies argued over the source of the pollution and laid plans to deal with it.