San Diego-based environmental group Coastkeeper filed a lawsuit Tuesday stating that the Navy is polluting San Diego Bay with toxin-loaded storm water. Coastkeeper says the Navy and the Department of Defense have allowed nearly 400 times the legal limit of contaminants including copper and zinc to pour into the bay. The lawsuit also claims that these agencies have failed to secure regulatory permission to discharge more than a dozen other pollutants into the body of water.
Several years ago, Coastkeeper filed a lawsuit that forced the City of San Diego to upgrade its sewage collection system. Now the organization is seeking the judicial system’s help in stopping future pollution and having the Navy clean up its mess. The lawsuit is based on approximately four years worth of water-monitoring data submitted to pollution regulators by Navy officials.
”By the Navy’s own admission, they are violating their… discharge limits pretty severely,” said Bruce Reznik, executive director of Coastkeeper. “They really haven’t poured in the kind of resources that they need to.”
Walter Ham, a spokesman for Navy Region Southwest, said he could not comment on the lawsuit, stating only, “We work very hard to safeguard the natural resources that the taxpayers have entrusted to us.”
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune
