[CPEO-MEF] Sand, designed for beaches, would have to be screened

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

California
Sand, designed for beaches, would have to be screened
By Terry Rodgers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 5, 2002
Union-Tribune

Union-Tribune
Plans to dredge San Diego harbor could be delayed or undermined unless 
officials find a way to deal with contamination of the bay bottom by 
discarded military munitions.

Although the Navy has known about the problem since 1997, it has no 
plans for a cleanup and considers the contamination a low priority.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has agreed to oversee and 
finance a $3.6 million dredging project on behalf of the San Diego 
Unified Port District to accommodate cargo shipping traffic, has decided 
that recycling the sand by placing it on local beaches would put 
beachgoers at risk.

As a result, the Army Corps has decided it must dump at sea thousands of 
tons of sand from the harbor.

But the state Coastal Commission may not allow that. In the past, the 
commission has gone to court to uphold its policy requiring money or 
other forms of compensation to offset the loss of beach sand.

The harbor dredging project, which is scheduled to begin next December, 
is needed to increase the efficiency of cargo shipping operations 
overseen by the San Diego Port District.

A study commissioned by the Navy confirmed that as many as 30 sites 
within the bay may contain a smattering of unexploded military 
munitions, ranging in size from machine-gun ammunition to mortar shells.

This article can  be viewed at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20021205-9999_6m5sand.html

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