Bay Becomes Trendy : Mayor Sets Sail on Cleanup Campaign, Suddenly a Popular Cause

It looked like any other tour boat out for a cruise on San Diego Bay. The guests milled about, munching pretzels, while a well-dressed guide with a microphone provided a running commentary on noteworthy sights visible through the vessel’s windows.

But instead of boasting about the San Diego skyline or pointing out Shelter Island’s hotels and scenic harbors, this tour guide talked about toxic chemicals. And sewage. And contaminated fish.

And instead of vacationers from Ohio, the Cabrillo carried officials from a host of local, state and federal agencies plus a pack of reporters on its afternoon swing through the bay’s choppy waters.

The Friday-afternoon excursion, organized by Mayor Maureen O’Connor, was the latest in a series of events focusing attention on a decades-old problem--the pollution of San Diego Bay. Suddenly, it seems, the bay has become an irresistibly compelling issue, something every self-respecting civic leader wants on his or her agenda.

Everybody’s Studying the Bay

Two politicians are forming all but identical task forces designed to “evaluate” and “monitor” the bay. Regulatory agencies are launching studies to find out just what’s wrong with the bay. And environmental groups are unveiling campaigns to alert the public to the perils lurking within the bay.

“It’s really amazing,” said Diane Takvorian, executive director of the nonprofit Environmental Health Coalition, which has a Clean Bay Campaign. “It seems that almost weekly there’s some new elected official or organization calling a press conference and jumping on this issue.”

Takvorian and others hope the new interest will ultimately free up funds to help purge the bay of its contaminants. But some worry that the plethora of groups now anxious to get a bite of the issue may actually hinder the accomplishment of that goal.

These skeptics suggest that, like the old adage that “too many cooks spoil the broth,” the various parties at work on the bay issue may not only duplicate efforts but threaten existing approaches to the problem that have been in the works for years.

“I applaud people’s interest in the bay, because it’s nice to have public support on these things,” said Gary Stephany, chief of environmental health services for the county. “But sometimes these people go at cross purposes, and that could be a hindrance to our effort. I think we’ve got a strategy that can result in our making some headway on the

bay.”

Stephany and other regulators worry that the task forces now forming to examine the bay’s ills may result in a lot of debate but little real progress. Meanwhile, they worry that attention will be diverted from ongoing efforts that have real promise.

“A task force is a popular thing but it really isn’t worth too much unless there’s money behind it,” Stephany said. “I’m a pro-active person, and I think the time has come for action.”

Takvorian, though pleased that politicians are finally paying attention to the bay, agreed that the risk of duplication exists and suggested that some sort of “environmental strike force” might be necessary to coordinate efforts.

“I realize it’s not going to do any good to just discuss it,” Takvorian said. “To have any effect, we have to not just pay lip service to it but move on to real cleanup.”

Over the last few years, reports about the presence of heavy metals and other toxic pollutants in the bay have prompted a surge of interest in the 18-square-mile inlet, the largest bay in Southern California.

In 1985, state investigators found extraordinarily high levels of copper in shellfish and sediment in the South Bay. It was determined that Paco Terminal Inc. was to blame. Other metals--zinc, silver and lead--also have turned up in samplings of bay waters.

Last year, Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical was accused by the state of discharging cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into storm drains leading to a lagoon in the bay. Other defense contractors are suspected of having contributed to the high levels of cancer-causing PCBs found in sediment at Convair Lagoon.

Sewage Dumped by Boaters

Other problems in the bay include the dumping of sewage by recreational boaters and the presence of other contaminants in runoff that reaches the bay via storm drains. Also, tributyltin--a boat paint used widely by the Navy to keep barnacles off ship hulls--has been found to be extremely toxic to some marine organisms in the bay.

Perhaps the coup de grace prompting interest in the bay issue came earlier this year when a study by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration ranked pollution levels in San Diego Bay as among the six highest in a survey of 50 bays and harbors across the nation.

While regulators responsible for the bay criticized the methodology of the study and said it overdramatized the waterway’s problems, it sounded an alarm that caught the ear of many elected officials.

Among the ongoing efforts on the bay’s behalf:

- Two bills by Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) are aimed at improving the bay’s health. One, currently awaiting the governor’s signature, would establish a 22-member panel to identify problems and develop a plan to “protect and enhance” the bay. The second bill would restrict the use of tributyltin.

- Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) joined the fray last month, announcing a five-point plan to clean up the bay. Key to the effort is a nine-member panel of environmental activists and government representatives that would coordinate a cleanup plan.

Bates also pledged to seek federal funds for monitoring pollution and to strengthen enforcement of laws designed to prevent pollution of the bay.

- Earlier this week, County Supervisor Brian Bilbray lent his voice to the chorus, urging that the San Diego Unified Port District fund a $250,000 health risk study of the bay by county officials.

Bilbray, who heads the America’s Cup Task Force, said the perception that the bay is “grossly polluted” could affect tourism and hurt the city’s image as it prepares to host the prestigious yachting event in 1991. The supervisor said the county’s effort deserves attention because it will answer a key question: “Is there a risk to humans who utilize San Diego Bay for recreational purposes or who consume fish from its waters?”

The county study would involve sampling tissues of fish commonly caught in the bay. It would measure contamination levels and the associated risks of eating those fish.

- Mayor O’Connor said she has been interested in the bay “since I was born” but decided to host Friday’s event to “get everyone in one room talking together.” O’Connor said she has no specific action plan for tackling the pollution problem but rather intends to make the city “the facilitator” on the bay issue.

- The Regional Water Quality Control Board is in the first year of a proposed five-year study of the degree of contamination in the bay and pinpointing the sources of that pollution. Most of the PCB contamination discovered so far has been in the North Bay, but officials suspect the contaminants may be in the South Bay as well. So far, funding for subsequent years of the state study has not been obtained.

- At least two environmental groups--the Environmental Health Coalition and Citizens for Century Three--have committees addressing San Diego Bay.

Civic interest in the bay wasn’t always this high. Not too many years ago, the crescent-shaped inlet was a virtual cesspool, a dumping ground for raw sewage as well as industrial waste from the military facilities and businesses that line the large waterway.

In that era--the 1950s and early 1960s--the bay ranged in color from brown to bright red, and large portions of it were quarantined by health officials. Fish were few. And it literally stank.

In 1963, the city opened the Point Loma Waste Water Treatment Plant, and marine and plant life in the bay gradually began to revive.

Still, an era of pollution and encroachment has taken its toll, officials say. The bay has been dredged to accommodate large ships, and the spoils were used to create Harbor and Shelter islands. North Island once was a true island, but it has been expanded--shrinking the size of the bay further.

These changes, which have cut shoreline wildlife habitat by 90%, plus the dense commercial and recreational development along its shore, assure that the bay will never again function like the thriving, natural wetland it once was.