In a closed door meeting the biggest polluters in San Diego bay will only have to clean up just 16% of the pollutants they were initially ordered to clean.
Photo by SignOnSanDiego
In 2005 the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board finalized a cleanup plan. Six of the major polluters (General Dynamics NASSCO, BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair, San Diego, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., the Navy and parent companies of San Diego Marine Construction) were ordered to dredge up 885,000 cubic yards of sediment but the polluters threatened litigation, so all parties went into mediation. They have emerged 5 years later with a plan that dramatically reduces the cost for the polluters and also decreases the amount of cleanup work they must perform.
Critics contend that the new approach reflects a common tactic by industry: threatening litigation and stalling costly environmental projects until new, more business-friendly regulators take office.
They also believe the revised proposal won’t take out enough mercury, lead and cancer-causing compounds that have accumulated since the early 1900s because of pollution by heavy industry, military operations and storm runoff. Scientists and community activists have long feared that the contaminants are harming marine life and endangering people who eat fish and shellfish from the bay.
"It’s obvious — the less you clean up, the less you have to pay," said Laura Hunter, director of the Clean Bay Campaign for the Environmental Health Coalition in National City. "I am very concerned that they figured out how much they were willing to spend and out pops how much they can clean up. That is just not the right way."
Backing off on bay cleanup [SignOnSanDiego]
