Port of San Diego enters final phase of copper reduction mandate

SAN DIEGO — Reducing the copper load at Shelter Island Yacht Basin has been progressing according to plan, Port of San Diego staff told commissioners, June 20. Meeting the regional and state water quality board mandates in the final five years of the basin’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program, however, could prove to be the most difficult stretch of the mandated 15-year process. A regional water board order called for the port district to reduce copper loads at Shelter Island Yacht Basin by at least 76 percent by 2022, according to a TMDL program update at the June 20 Board of Port Commissioners meeting. Port district staff informed commissioners the quasi-judicial agency had met its 2017 goal to reduce copper levels at Shelter Island Yacht Basin by 40 percent, when compared to 2007 levels. The 40 percent reduction mandate was the third phase of a four-stage TMDL compliance schedule established by the regional water quality board. Stages 1 and 2 began in 2007 and 2012, respectively; the TMDL compliance schedule only required a 10 percent reduction in copper by 2012. The fourth and final stage begins in 2018 and continues through 2022; the port district must have achieved a 76 percent reduction in copper...