Port District to Fight State Bay Cleanup Order

A recent state order that the San Diego Unified Port District and Paco Terminals clean up more of the copper ore spilled into the bay at National City will be challenged in court and is expected to further delay a cleanup already postponed for seven years, a Port District official said Monday.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board had set the cleanup level at 1,000 parts per million in 1986, but last December board members rejected staff recommendations and relaxed the standard to 4,000 parts per million, hoping the compromise would get the cleanup started, said board senior engineer David Barker.

On Sept. 17, the State Water Resources Control Board reversed that decision, saying the loosened standards were insufficient to reduce the high copper levels in San Diego Bay to legally acceptable levels. Paco Terminals and the Port District were ordered to immediately clean the sediment so only 1,000 parts per million of copper ore remain.

Ralph Hicks, environmental management coordinator for the Port District, said Monday the state order was “parochial,” ignored eight years of biological studies conducted by Port District consultants that show marine life is unharmed by the contaminated sediment, and failed to consider the prohibitive cost of such a stringent cleanup.

The change could also jeopardize legal settlements reached with Paco Terminals and other responsible parties to finance a partial cleanup, he added.

“It certainly does look like we’re going to go to court,” Hicks said. “It has taken a long time to bring all the parties together to develop a solution, to get the money together to pay for a solution. The State Water Resources Board ignored that and were incredibly myopic in their decision.”

The copper ore was illegally spilled into the bay by Paco Terminals between 1979 and 1985 while it was loaded onto ships at the National City Marine Terminal for export, and it settled in the sediment at levels exceeding 50,000 parts per million. The company’s land was leased from the Port District.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board ordered a cleanup in 1985, and set the stringent standard a year later after research showed the copper ore was dissolving into the water and being absorbed by mussels in the area of the spill, Barker said--research the Port District and Paco terminals dispute.

The Port District was named as a responsible party in 1989, he said.

Years of delays followed the cleanup order.

First, Paco Terminals spent years trying to get a permit that would allow it to dispose of the contaminated sediment in ocean waters. “In the end, the EPA told them, ‘No,’ ” Barker said.

The cost of disposal became a central issue, Hicks said, adding that dredging deep enough to attain the more stringent level might undermine the marine terminal and cause it to collapse.

Hicks said an Arizona copper smelter has agreed to process the sediment that is removed to clean the bay floor to a level of 4,000 parts per million, but the percentage of copper ore in sediment would be too small for the smelter to process at more stringent levels.

“If we can find a home for the additional material, we estimate it will double the cost, to $15 million, from $7 million,” Hicks said. “We can always take it to a Class 1 hazardous waste dump. But the cost would probably be tens upon tens of millions. (The state board) hides behind the fact that all they have to do is give you a cleanup level. They don’t have to look at money, or at the technology.”

While the Port District was ready to proceed with a cleanup, Hicks said a lawsuit now may put that on hold, and unravel the tentative settlements to pay for it reached with Paco, copper mines, insurance companies and other responsible parties.

“I hope we can start the cleanup at least to 4,000 parts per million. If we go to court, I don’t know if that will be stopped. Historically that has happened,” Hicks said. “Right now we’re in settlement conferences with all the responsible parties. We had the money and a cleanup solution at 4,000 parts per million. I don’t know what will happen now, but I have fears that it will all go away.”

Hicks said years of biological studies by Port District consultants show that copper ore does not dissolve into the water and has not had any impact on the blue mussels that still cover the National City Marine Terminal Pier. Their studies--which contradict research conducted by regional and state board scientists--show levels can exceed 18,000 parts per million and still not harm marine life, he said.

The 4,000 parts per million standard was chosen because anything above that is designated as toxic by the state, Hicks said.

“The point is that copper is supposed to be toxic. It’s supposed to kill the most sensitive animals. We’re not seeing it. We haven’t seen it, and you’re certainly not going to see it at the levels that we’re suggesting,” Hicks said.

The state board did not find that research satisfied its standards, board chairman W. Don Maughan said.

“According to my view of it, they seemed to leapfrog. If they were really trying to establish the proper level of acceptable copper ore, we feel the way would have been to examine intermediate levels, which they didn’t,” Maughan said. “All this costs money, and we understand that, but this copper is down there in the sediment and we need to get it out.”

Maughan said the cleanup should begin immediately, but the Port District and Paco Terminals can still submit further scientific studies to the board to show that marine life is not affected.

Whether or not marine life is affected, the copper ore was illegally discharged into the bay and the responsible parties can be ordered to clean it up, Barker said.

San Diego Bay has been placed on several Clean Water Act-mandated lists of “impaired water bodies,” in part because of high copper levels, the state order said.

Research conducted by regional and state board scientists has shown that mussels near Paco Terminals’ operations contained levels of copper much higher than mussels in other areas, Barker said. That supported findings that the copper ore doesn’t just sit in the sediment, but dissolves into the bay water.

The heavy metal is a known toxin once it gets into the food chain.

Cleaning the copper ore out of the sediment to a level of 1,000 parts per million would only remove 4% to 5% of what was illegally spilled, but it would bring bay waters into compliance with state standards, whereas the 4,000 parts per million standard would not, the order said.

Diane Takvorian, executive director of the Environmental Health Coalition--the San Diego group that appealed the regional board’s decision to the state board--said the decision should not come down to dollars.

“We had to go at it pretty straight. The Clean Water Act and the bays and estuaries plan for San Diego say you have to go to 1,000 parts per million. And the state board agreed with us,” Takvorian said.

“Whether or not San Diego Bay gets cleaned up should not depend on whether the Port and Paco Terminals can strike a deal. The government has a role in this. They’re taking their role seriously, and they’re acting it out. They both have insurance. If they made a mistake, that’s what the insurance is for.”