Polluted water flows largely unabated out of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the world’s leader on oceanographic issues, and into supposedly protected waters.
An “Area of Special Biological Significance” surrounds Scripps, a unique zone of the ocean that the state intended to maintain perfectly natural ” free from any discharge, let alone polluted runoff.
In an effort to address the anomaly, Scripps won’t stop the discharge but it will take greater steps to filter pollutants and monitor water quality.
The institution will embark on a multi-million-dollar project to first separate its seawater and storm water pipelines, and then to create a “Best Management Program” to clean the water and monitor its quality. Scripps also plans to eliminate dry weather run-off from landscaping and maintenance work.
“One of the longer-term goals is to make sure that any seawater that’s removed from the ocean is returned to the ocean as clean or cleaner than when it was taken out,” said Milt Phegley, spokesman for the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Seawater is pumped through the facility for use in the aquarium and in laboratories. Chemicals are added to the aquarium water to treat diseases or organic matter. Approximately one million gallons of the polluted seawater, commingled with the storm water, is then returned to the ocean, according to Scripps’ draft Mitigated Negative Declaration.
Storm water ” rain that picks up chemicals as it flows over gasoline-stained highways and treated lawns ” will now flow into the ocean through a separate pipe from the seawater. Meters will periodically sample the storm water to determine its quality.
In order to curb dry-weather flow, Scripps will first work to reduce the quantity, then close drains leading to the storm water pipes and direct the waste to the sewer plant, instead of into the ocean. The institution aims to completely cease dry-weather flows into the ocean by Jan. 1, 2007.
While Scripps technically violates California’s 2005 Ocean Plan, the institution has been granted an exception to discharge into the specially protected area, as long as it fulfills the recent “special protections” for cleaner discharge.
The State Water Resources Board prefers to refer to the permit as “special conditions for ASBS areas,” rather than as an exception to the Ocean Plan.
“The California Public Resources Code (a state law) says that the state board can establish special protections for ASBS areas,” said Dominic Gregorio, senior environmental scientist for the state board. “So we are now working on developing those special protections to address urban runoff into ASBS.”
For years, San Diego’s Regional Water Quality Control Board issued permits allowing Scripps to discharge into the protected waters, but a recent policy overhaul at the state level is forcing institutions to at least address the water quality, even if exceptions are made to continue the discharge.
Scripps isn’t alone in its continuous discharge into specially protected areas. In fact, 1,658 discharges into ASBS zones were discovered after an environmental group prompted the State Water Resources Control Board to conduct a survey in 2000.
“Despite the designation of these areas for protection, little is known about the presence and types of discharges that currently occur in these areas,” reads the draft Mitigated Negative Declaration.
Surprised by the results, the state board will attempt to address the violations, beginning with Scripps.
“Both the state board and Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) are hoping that what’s being done at SIO is a learning experience that can serve as a template or model for other institutions throughout the state,” Phegley said.
Local environmental groups San Diego Baykeeper and the Surfrider Foundation support Scripps’ exception and efforts to address discharge quality.
Determining what level of water quality to strive for may be problematic, however, since the ASBS is already degraded, and no longer an enclave of natural water, according to the environmental groups.
In order to maintain the water at its natural state, Scripps must first determine what is “natural.” To achieve this level, a committee of experts will assess historical data, the state of sediment, and possibly even reference water conditions from another location.
Not every institution will be granted amnesty to interfere with the natural balance of its ASBS, however. Entities must serve a public use and strive to maintain the area’s natural water quality in order to discharge. Scripps easily qualified as a public servant, but a factory, for instance, obviously would not be permitted to emit its waste into an ASBS, Gregorio said.
As for eliminating storm water runoff altogether, sewer stations are already overwhelmed during rainy periods so the water state board wouldn’t consider sending it there, according to Gregorio. As long as rain continues, it will pick up chemicals and flow into the ocean for now.
Thirty-four ASBS zones have been established up and down the coast, including the ones surrounding islands.
For more information visit www.swrcb.ca.gov, click on ASBS and scroll down to Ocean Plan Exception or visit http://physicalplanning.ucsd.edu/pub_notice.html.