By Mike Lee
San Diego Union Tribune
February 22, 2007

SAN DIEGO – The long-delayed effort to clean up one of San Diego Bay's most polluted spots has hit another snag, and the agency in charge can't say when the process will begin again.

JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune A sign at Pepper Park in National City warned of toxins that affect the quality of fish caught there. Environmentalists are concerned about toxic shipyard chemicals and petroleum products in the water.

The targeted area consists of about 60 acres of the bay bottom just south of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge.

Six parties or groups may have to pay for the cleanup. They are National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., known as NASSCO; BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair; the city of San Diego; San Diego Gas & Electric Co.; the Navy; and the parent companies of San Diego Marine Construction Corp.

The water board decided to digitize a mountain of paperwork related to the complex case. It hired D-M Information Systems of Davis in May 2006 for the project. No due date was established because the agency and D-M weren't sure how many documents it would have to process.

The water board has announced one postponement after another for the digitizing venture.

The latest delay was made public this week. In a memo sent to parties involved in the cleanup order, the agency said D-M Information Systems has failed on several levels and that it didn't know when the work would be finished.

News of the holdup sparked outrage among environmentalists and activists for communities around the bay. They are concerned that South Bay anglers may be catching fish contaminated by the sediment, which is laced with toxic shipyard chemicals and petroleum products.

“Every day that we don't act on these sediments, they are continuing to damage our ecosystem and put people's health at risk. . . . It's just unconscionable,” Laura Hunter, spokeswoman for the nonprofit Environmental Health Coalition in National City, said yesterday.

State Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, has pledged to introduce legislation to “reform” the San Diego water board, which she said has a “reputation for inaction.” Kehoe said she'll file a placeholder bill by today and will add details to it in coming weeks.

Water board officials also said they are frustrated by the slow pace.

“The urgency of this project, already high at its inception, has only grown more acute due to repeated delays,” Craig Carlisle, a senior geologist at the board, said in this week's memo.

Carlisle blamed slowdowns at D-M Information Systems on anomalies in page numbers, a power failure that caused files to be lost, the need to locate and ship more than 200 data disks, and the abrupt departure of the company's project leader. Carlisle said the board selected D-M from a state-approved list of contractors.

The agency plans to pay about $113,000 for the project.

“I made a point of letting (D-M officials) know that any fixes were on their dime,” Carlisle said.

He roughly estimated that the most recent delays would stretch the work by 30 days.

“The company didn't want to commit to any definite deadline,” Carlisle said.

D-M marketing director Alan Humason deferred questions to another company official, who did not respond.

Once the water board finally distributes the digitized documents, it can start a nine-month public hearing process.

Typically, the agency's governing board would have issued a final ruling after reviewing the staff's cleanup proposal and fielding rebuttals from the parties involved.

But this case is different because it is so complex – it deals with the possible health effects of decades-old pollution – and virtually certain to land in court.

In light of those factors, the water agency decided to provide indexed computer files of all relevant documents before the governing board took up arguments. Board officials agreed that it would be the best way to give everyone access to the records and prepare for litigation.

Water board employees spent months sorting through some 130 linear feet of records. They ended up with more than 120,000 pages that D-M Information Systems needed to digitize and load onto hard drives. More documents are expected to dribble in once the board starts its hearings.

David King, a member of the agency's governing board, said this week that he has told the staff to complete the digitization phase as soon as possible, but that's the limit of his authority.

“I want to get this thing done in my lifetime,” King said.

The case seems to have invited such thinking from the start.

“I'd like to see the bay cleaned up before I die,” board member Richard Wright said in 2005.