San Diego CoastKeeper has filed a lawsuit alleging the Navy is polluting San Diego Bay.
According to the lawsuit, storm-water runoff controlled by the Navy represents dramatic ” and illegal ” amounts of copper and zinc being discharged into the bay.
Amounts as high as 394 times the acceptable level of copper, and 99 times the acceptable level of zinc, have been discharged, according to the document.
The discharge takes place through 56 industrial storm-water outfalls in and around Naval Station San Diego and the Broadway Complex at 937 North Harbor Drive.
“They’re [the Navy] violating state standards and we think they should come into the same kind of compliance that’s required of any other type of industrial user,” said Bruce Reznik, executive director of the San Diego chapter of the nonprofit CoastKeeper.
The storm water is mostly runoff from the industrial sites around the naval station, Reznik said. The lawsuit alleges the amounts of copper and zinc discharged violate the California Toxins Rule (CTR) and the federal Clean Water Act. The CTR sets limits for the amount of copper and zinc that can be released into the bay, according to the suit.
Reznik said the lawsuit is based on data gathered by the Navy, which also shows the presence of 27 chemicals in the bay. The Navy reported the findings to the Regional Water Quality Control Board in public meetings during the last six months.
John Robertus, executive officer of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, said his agency issued the Navy a permit that allows certain pollutants in storm-water discharges as long as the Navy follows “best management” practices.
The permit does not set limits for individual constituents, he said.
“In order [for the Navy] to put the ‘best management’ practices in place to remove all the pollutants “¦ is certainly beyond our expectation,” Robertus said.
Although the Navy is exempt from fines, Robertus said the RWQCB has the authority to issue a notice of violation and a cease-and-desist order. However, the board doesn’t have the resources to follow through on a cease-and-desist order, he added.
Robertus said the toxicity levels of the Navy’s storm-water discharge have been decreasing over the years and that the RWQCB and the Navy have made efforts to clean the water around the region’s creeks and waterways.
Brian O’Rourke of the Navy’s public information office said the Navy is not commenting on the lawsuit at the moment, but wrote in an e-mail: “We take our role as stewards of the environment very seriously; we work conscientiously to maintain and protect the environment our military and civilian workforce live and work in.”
Reznick said he is hoping to sit down with Navy officials to reach an agreement on the implementation of environmental programs in the area. For more information, visit www.sdcoastkeeper.com.