Media Release

Regional Board caves in to polluters’ tactics
EHC, Bay Council, Community: We will not rest until our bay is clean!

June 29, 2005- The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) today effectively turned its back to the community at large, to Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), and to the other members of the San Diego Bay Council.

At today’s meeting, the Board caved in to legal motions submitted by NASSCO, one of the responsible parties named in the draft Cleanup and Abatement Order issued in April of this year by the Regional Board. These included a motion that barred the Regional Board Members from participating in the workshop scheduled for today that would have allowed them to better understand the urgency of their decision. This, paired with the other motions that were ultimately accepted by the board effectively delayed the imparting of justice to the bay and to the communities that depend on it.

Marco Gonzalez, Senior Partner at Coast Law Group, LLP, said “These were frivolous motions brought by the shipyards to delay the inevitable cleanup. This is nothing more than the bullying we’ve seen over the years from the shipyards. Unfortunately, the Board refused to stand up to the bully, and instead acquiesced to their demands.”

EHC has been working on establishing clean up levels for sediments in San Diego Bay for over 10 years now. “I talked to fisherman at the piers of San Diego Bay earlier this year. I talked to them about the pollution that has been documented in San Diego Bay, and I talked to them about the Regional Board and your mission.” Said Sonia Rodriguez, community organizer for EHC, during today’s meeting. She continued, “That is why I am here with 690 signed petitions asking you to do your job and have the workshop today and schedule the hearing for the cleanup order, NOW” concluded Rodriguez.

Soon after the Board made its decision and granted the polluter’s motions, Georgette Gomez, also a community organizer for EHC, responded to their decision: “Despite the public’s demand for the Regional Board to take the necessary actions to cleanup San Diego Bay by setting an aggressive schedule for a public hearing and final decision on the sediment cleanup issue, they have chosen to ignore us. The community is tired of waiting!” concluded Gomez. To protest the absence of the Regional Board Members at the afternoon workshop, EHC, the Bay Council and present members of the community walked out from the rest of the scheduled proceedings and boycotted the workshop.

The members of the San Diego Bay Council have supported the draft of the cleanup order at the heart of these proceedings, which was issued back in April of this year, as being feasible and attainable and that it would finally protect the bay.

###