Shelter Island Yacht Basin: Reducing Copper Levels

Byline: Taylor Hill SAN DIEGO — Marinas, waterfront businesses and boaters with vessels in San Diego Bay’s Shelter Island Yacht Basin have been working hard to reduce the amount of copper in the water, but more stringent rules may be needed to meet even stricter copper level limits that are on the horizon, according to the Port of San Diego’s Board of Port Commissioners. At a meeting on Dec. 13, the commissioners discussed the current state of copper reduction in Shelter Island Yacht Basin, and what kind of progress had been achieved toward the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board’s mandate that the amount of dissolved copper here be reduced by 10 percent in 2012. The work to reduce copper in the basin was prompted by the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s establishment of a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the basin in 2005. The TMDL order requires the Port of San Diego and its tenants to reduce copper loading in Shelter Island Yacht Basin by 76 percent by 2022, with phased-in loading targets of 10 percent and 40 percent required by the end of 2012 and 2017, respectively. The Regional Water Quality Control Board has cited numerous studies that show concentrated...