San Diego

The regional water pollution control agency has received a $191,720 grant from the state for the first part of a five-year study of San Diego Bay, which is suffering from severe pollution from copper and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

The study in the first year is to cover PCBs found south of the Coronado Bridge, tributyltin contamination from anti-fouling paints used on boats, oil from shore-side tanks and discharges from storm drains into the bay.

The money for the Regional Water Quality Control Board study is to come from its parent agency, the state Water Resources Control Board. It comes from fines collected from municipalities and firms found to have violated state water-quality laws.

State tests since the early 1980s have found that the levels of PCBs, which are suspected carcinogens, in the bay’s Convair Lagoon off Harbor Drive are among the highest ever found in California coastal waters. Investigators have also found extraordinarily high levels of copper in shellfish and sediments near a large copper-transport facility near the Coronado Bridge.

Now regional water board officials intend to investigate signs of other pollution they have noticed in the bay. State testing with mussels has turned up PCBs in the southern end of the bay. Other studies have suggested boat-paint pollution problems.