Media Release

Contaminated Catch - A Risk for Bay Fisher Families

State Leaders Ortiz and Saldaña join EHC in urging Regional Water Board action

(National City)- Today at a press conference in Pepper Park in National City, Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) released its landmark report ‘Survey of Fishers on Piers in San Diego Bay.’ The first survey of San Diego Bay pier fishers and their fish consumption patterns, it documents that people are consuming fish in quantities that can damage their health. EHC is urging the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) to direct the shipyards responsible for significant contamination of the Bay to remove more than one million tons of toxic sediments to protect the health of fish consumers and the San Diego Bay ecosystem.

Contamination of fish and sediments from San Diego Bay is well documented. In 1990, a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) rated San Diego Bay as one of the most contaminated urbanized coastal areas in the nation. A second study in 1996 by the State Water Resources Control Board, again, documented widespread contamination. Human health risk studies done in 1990, 1991, 1995, 1998, and 2004 have estimated significant health risks when people consume bay fish at higher rates of consumption than the average recreational fisher. What has been missing is evidence that people are consuming fish at those higher rates that can damage their health. This report presents that missing evidence.

EHC will use this data to support a specific set of recommendations to the Regional Board later this year, once the board sets a hearing date for the issue of sediment clean-up levels. Laura Hunter, Director of EHC’s Clean Bay Campaign summarized the organization’s demands: “EHC is calling on the State to act to remove dangerous chemicals from the Bay known to bioaccumulate and threaten the health of families that rely on the Bay for a food source.” She said “By taking these specific actions, the Regional Board will help protect the communities most affected by the contamination of the Bay and human health and the environment in general,” she concluded.

Members of the San Diego Bay Council and local fishermen were at hand today, in support of the findings of this groundbreaking report. Also present were elected officials Assemblymember Lori Saldaña from the 76th Assembly District, and State Senator Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento.

"I agree with the EHC report: it's time to move forward and safeguard our bay, improve water quality, and protect the health of everyone who lives and visits there" said Saldaña, a long time clean water advocate for the San Diego region; "Together, we will create programs that mitigate the harm done to the bay, and protect everyone who uses it for recreation and sustenance" she added.

The survey was completed during the winter and spring months of 2004, and it reveals that a significant population of fishers frequently fish near contaminated areas of the Bay and feed their families with the fish they catch. More than 100 fishers were surveyed at the Chula Vista Pier, Pepper Park Pier in National City and the Convention Center Pier in San Diego. Some of the key results of the survey are:

• 96% of the fishers were Filipino or Latino
• 83% were residents of west Chula Vista, National City or Barrio Logan
• 63% of the fishers, their families or friends consumed the fish they caught
• 35% fed the fish to their children
• 31% fished at least weekly and 25% fished 4 to 7 times a week
• Over half of the Filipino fishers fished at least 4 times a week

This survey report confirms cultural differences among populations that have not been taken into account in other reports of fish consumption. For example, one of the results is that people are eating parts of the fish other than the fillets (which is the part of the fish typically analyzed for fish consumption studies) and in some cases the fish is prepared in a manner that uses the whole fish. This is of particular importance because contaminants can concentrate in the skin, fat, and internal organs. Additionally, the cooking methods that were most mentioned in the survey were frying and stewing, methods that remove less contaminants from the fish than baking or broiling.

The key actions that EHC is recommending the Regional Board to take are as follows:

1. Require commercial shipyards and naval facilities to clean up to protective background levels for remediation of toxic sediments in San Diego Bay and to support protective sediment quality objectives for the State.
2. Consider the environmental justice impacts in decision-making and implement precaution in all permitting and regulatory decisions.
3. Revise the fish consumption warning for San Diego Bay based on higher consumption levels.
4. Update and replace fish warning signs to include Tagalog
5. Work with the Department of Toxic Substances Control and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to initiate an outreach and education program to educate fishers of the Bay of the risks of consuming Bay fish and some means to reduce the risks.

“Protecting the health of Californians, and especially our children, is one of the highest priorities and responsibilities government has,” said Senator Deborah Ortiz, chair of the Senate Health Committee.  “The dedicated efforts by organizations like the Environmental Health Coalition are critical to ensuring the safety of those who live in our community.  With the continuing, grassroots level commitment of EHC, we will winthe fight and ensure we have clean air and water, and our children are free of exposure to dangerous chemicals.”

The contamination of the fish in San Diego Bay is the direct result of sediment and water contamination. A key pollution source are the San Diego shipyards like Southwest Marine and NASSCO, who for more than 20 years have been illegally dumping wastes into San Diego Bay and have contaminated the sediments in the Bay. In 2001, the Regional Board ordered the shipyards to perform sediment sampling in order to establish cleanup levels. Now, consultants for the shipyards have developed a plan that proposes leaving all of the contaminated sediments in the Bay and performing no cleanup at all. If this happens, it would put the people who fish from the Bay and the wildlife in jeopardy for years to come.

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Environmental Health Coalition is dedicated to environmental and social justice. We believe that justice is achieved when empowered communities act together to make social change. We organize and advocate to protect public health and the environment threatened by toxic pollution. EHC supports efforts that create a just society and that foster a healthy and sustainable quality of life.