State Fines Teledyne $75,000, Paco $50,000 for Bay Pollution

State pollution officials on Monday levied $125,000 in fines against Teledyne Ryan and Paco Terminals for negligently dumping carcinogens and copper into different ends of San Diego Bay.

In a unanimous vote, the Regional Water Quality Control Board voted to levy a $75,000 fine against Teledyne Ryan for discharging cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from their transformers into storm drains leading to the bay. The $75,000 fine was the same amount recommended by the board’s staff last week.

But, in a second vote, the regional board agreed to drastically cut a proposed fine against Paco Terminals of National City in exchange for the company’s offer to underwrite a series of studies about water quality in the bay, a decision that angered at least one spokesman for a local environmental group.

Last week, the board’s staff proposed a $200,000 fine against Paco Terminals for dumping copper into South Bay 31 times from April, 1985, through Dec. 29, 1986. In November, the board ordered the company to find a way to reduce the concentration of copper in sediment near the 24th Street Terminal from as high as 2,400 parts per million to 1,000 p.p.m.

But subsequent negotiations between the board’s staff and company representatives yielded a settlement that dropped the fine to $50,000 in exchange for the company paying $75,000 over the next three years to analyze the effects of ship wastes on the bay, as well as developing a computerized program listing of all the literature that has been printed about the bay.

By unanimous vote, the regional board Monday blessed the settlement with Paco, angering the executive director of the Environmental Health Coalition.

“We find this to be disgraceful because the fine is supposed to be the penalty for pollution and should not be affected by what it costs the company to clean it up or any other deals the regional board made with them,” said Diane Takvorian, the coalition’s director.

Takvorian said the reduction approved Monday was particularly irksome because Paco Terminals faced up to $694,000 in fines for the copper violations found by the board’s staff.

“The board was quite complimentary about the ability of the staff and the company to work together,” Takvorian said. “We wish they had as much enthusiasm for enforcing the law.”

John Lormon, the attorney representing Paco, said the settlement with the water board included the “right number” for the fine.

“It should be noted that we have never taken a position that we feel that Paco is a guilty party and there is no admission to guilt in the underlying charges to the resolution of this case,” Lormon said.

Made Attractive Offer

David Barker, a senior engineer with the water board’s San Diego office, said the board approved the settlements Monday because the offers for local studies were attractive.

“Part of the reason that makes it attractive is the money can be used locally and right away,” said Barker.

Otherwise, all fine money is sent to a central fund in Sacramento, which is then distributed to water-cleanup projects throughout the state; there is no guarantee that all of the fine money from San Diego will return, he said.

Findings of copper pollution against Paco Terminals originate from a time when the company loaded copper ore at the 24th Street Terminal. The activity ceased in late December, 1986, and now it loads other kinds of cargo.

In the case against Teledyne Ryan, a written complaint says that PCBs from transformers at the defense contractor’s plant were put into storm drains and into Convair Lagoon at least 58 times during rainstorms between March, 1985, and December, 1987.

From 1982 to 1986, mussels in the lagoon were found to have concentrations of PCBs ranging from 3,790 p.p.m. to 2,010 p.p.m.--all in excess of the 2,000 p.p.m. tolerance set as acceptable by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1984. State officials have described the PCB levels in the bay as among the highest in the state.

Teledyne Ryan has also offered to pay $100,000 over the next three years for a regional board study of the bay.