SAN FRANCISCO -- Water quality regulators have relaxed restrictions on nickel and copper in San Francisco Bay, saying current levels haven't appeared toxic enough to harm fish and other organisms. The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board loosened standards on the metals for waters south of the Dumbarton Bridge on Wednesday. But the new regulations must be approved by state and federal boards before going into effect said Wil Bruhns of the Water Quality Board.
A group of studies paid for by the city of San Jose persuaded the board to change the standards. Tetra-Tech, the company that conducted the studies, found that levels of nickel and copper in southern portions of the Bay were significantly below national standards determined to be safe by the Environmental Protection Agency, Bruhns said.
Copper and nickel both are toxic at certain levels.
The move was applauded by municipal sewage treatment plants and Bay Area cities, who say meeting the current standards is costly.
Bruhns said that the new regulations were approved along with a plan of action to control the metals if levels start to increase.
Tests are underway to determine copper and nickel levels in the rest of the bay.
Water quality regulators have loosened restrictions on copper and nickel in San Francisco Bay, saying that the current levels don't appear to be toxic enough to harm fish and other organisms.
The move was welcomed by municipal sewage treatment plants and other big dischargers as well as Bay Area cities, which must control polluted runoff from their streets. They say meeting the costs of the stricter standards would cost millions of dollars.
The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board -- convinced by $2.5 million in studies paid for by the city of San Jose and an umbrella group of wastewater dischargers -- loosened the copper and nickel standards south of the Dumbarton Bridge. The board will decide on how to deal with the rest of the bay later this year.
Copper, which is toxic to plankton and shellfish, comes from metal plating, oil refining and semiconductor manufacturing, and it erodes from water pipes. Copper residue from brake pads and ornaments on buildings also runs directly into the bay off streets after rains. Nickel is an industrial waste product.
The State Water Resources Control Board is expected to go even further in September and decide that copper and nickel should be removed from a list of pollutants considered to impair the entire bay.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which must approve the state's action, has designated segments of the bay as impaired by dioxin, DDT and other chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, mercury, copper and nickel. Such designations mean that the bay needs greater protection, and result in stricter limits on sewage plants and other dischargers.
The bay's 40 sewage plants have trouble meeting copper limits, particularly in the South Bay, which is far from tidal flushing action.
Chuck Weir, chair of the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies, an umbrella group of treatment plants, said the group had presented data showing that the national standards were too strict for the bay. The plants don't want to pay higher treatment costs to meet standards they believe are inappropriate, he said.
The treatment operators hired consultants to conduct studies on the two metals' effects on bay organisms. Overseen by the regional board and conducted by TetraTech of Walnut Creek, the studies found that the bay's organisms were not being impaired. More study was recommended for plankton and some other bay life.
Some environmental groups have accepted the change, satisfied with a plan that would trigger new controls if copper levels rise. The dischargers would have to determine where the copper was coming from and control it, said Wil Bruhns, a regional board spokesman.
But Jonathan Kaplan, the San Francisco BayKeeper, said the regional board "is trading a simple, enforceable command and control regulatory system set forth under the Clean Water Act for a list of incompletely defined activities" that may result in increased levels of the metals.
Roberta Larson, lobbyist for the California Association of Sanitation Agencies, said the lower standards might seem less protective of water quality.
"But in reality we've brought the best science to bear here and come up with a number that's protective of the uses of the bay."
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