State Seeks $275,000 in Fines From Paco, Teledyne for Bay Pollution

State water pollution officials Monday recommended $275,000 in civil fines against two waterfront companies accused of negligently dumping copper and carcinogens at two ends of San Diego Bay.

The staff of the Regional Water Quality Control Board recommended a $200,000 fine against Paco Terminals of National City for copper pollution around the 24th Street Terminal.

The staff also recommended a $75,000 fine against Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical for discharging cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into storm drains that feed into Convair Lagoon, at the east end of Harbor Island near Lindbergh Field.

The recommended fines--which will be presented to the water board Monday for approval--are the first economic sanctions suggested by the state against the companies, although water officials have been negotiating for months with the firms to stop the pollution and begin cleanup efforts.

Working on Cleanup

“With both of these cases--Paco and Teledyne Ryan--we have been working on the cleanup portion of the project, getting things set up so the contamination can be resolved in some manner,” said David Barker, a senior engineer with the water board in San Diego.

“Only after that is taken care of do we go into the fines,” he said.

Barker said he wouldn’t classify the pollution areas as “ecological disaster areas,” but added that they are “problem sites in San Diego Bay . . . where we know who the responsible party is.”

Spokesmen for both companies declined comment on the proposed fines until they had finished reviewing the board’s written complaints, which were released late Monday.

The written complaint against Paco Terminals cited the company for 31 spills or discharges of copper ore into the South Bay between April, 1985, and Dec. 29, 1986--the date the firm discontinued its copper ore loading operation. The company still loads other cargo.

Barker said the spills occurred when rainstorms carried the copper through storm drains and into the bay at the 24th Street Terminal, where tests have shown copper in the sediment to be as high as 2,400 parts per million (ppm).

Those high levels prompted the water board to order Paco in November to begin working on a plan to reduce the copper content to 1,000 ppm, said Barker. The company is hoping to dredge the area around its storm drains and petition the federal Environmental Protection Agency for permission to dump the excess copper far out into the ocean, he added.

PCBs in Convair Lagoon

Although Paco was liable for up to $694,000 in fines, the board staff recommended a reduced penalty of $200,000, which might be dropped even lower if the company agrees to settle on the fine this week, added Barker.

In the case against Teledyne Ryan, the board’s written complaint alleged that PCBs--man-made chlorinated hydrocarbons that were used for many years in transformers and capacitors and have been found to cause cancer in animals--were discharged through storm drains and into Convair Lagoon at least 58 times during rainstorms between March, 1985, and Dec. 19, 1987, according to the written complaint.

PCB levels in mussels in Convair Lagoon were found to be as high as 3,790 ppm between 1982 and 1983, but dropped to 2,010 ppm to 2,210 ppm between 1984 and 1986.

Even at the lower levels, the complaint says, the PCBs were in excess of the 2,000 ppm tolerance set as acceptable by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1984. The PCB levels have been described by state officials as among the highest ever found along the coast.

For years, water officials were puzzled about the source of the PCBs in Convair Lagoon. Investigations centered on users of the storm drain system, including General Dynamics, Pacific Southwest Airlines, Lindbergh Field and the U.S. Coast Guard Station.

But a 1986 study by the water board showed that Teledyne Ryan was the firm that discharged the PCBs.

“Teledyne Ryan is the only company that we’ve identified as having some point in the past discharged PCBs into the bay,” said Barker. “They’re the only known party at this time, so we’re not considering penalties against anyone else because we’re not aware of any other source.”

Company officials have contended, however, that their firm is not the only one to dump PCBs into the storm drains and the bay, and they are currently conducting a study, under water board supervision, to discover the extent of contamination in lagoon sediment.

Last year, an EPA inspection of the aircraft builder, at 2701 Harbor Drive, found that the company was guilty of mishandling PCBs. Settlement discussions between the federal government and Teledyne Ryan resulted in a $48,000 fine against the company.

Now, state water officials are seeking civil penalties for PCB contamination of the bay. Barker said the company was liable for up to $290,000, but the recommended amount was dropped to $75,000 because the company has cooperated with cleanup efforts.

Counted among the cooperative efforts was Teledyne Ryan’s offer to pay $100,000 a year for the next three years to fund state studies of San Diego Bay pollution, a voluntary program to replace the contaminated storm drains, and a $1-million program to replace transformers that still use carcinogenic substances.