Letter to the Editor: Is It Really Necessary to Reduce Copper in Shelter Island Yacht Basin?

Byline: Michael Wilson While all indications are that San Diego’s Shelter Island Yacht Basin has met a 2012 quota for reducing waterborne copper by 10 percent (as covered in The Log’s Jan. 18-31 issue story, “Shelter Island Yacht Basin Said to Be Meeting Copper Reduction Marks”), my question is this: Was reducing copper in this waterway ever really necessary in the first place? Somehow, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board decided that copper in a local waterway was bad, despite the fact that we pipe all our residential drinking water through the stuff. Copper pipes have been used for centuries, and our society has not yet perished. And many of us also use copper cookware daily and wear copper bracelets. Never mind that scientific studies have not shown any ill effects on local marine life that are linked to copper. There’s some copper in Shelter Island Yacht Basin and, by golly, the water board is going to regulate it. The rest of San Diego Bay has not been similarly targeted. The water board has chosen to ignore the many chemicals and pollutants the Navy has dumped into our local waters for decades. Since it has no authority to regulate the Navy, it simply...