Pollution of S.F. Bay Fish Called a Civil Rights Issue / Ecology groups want dioxin levels reduced
Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, May 13, 1998
1998-05-13 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A coalition of environmental groups charged yesterday that the state is violating civil rights laws by allowing the contamination of San Francisco Bay fish, eaten mostly by Asians and African Americans.
In a petition filed with federal environmental regulators, the coalition wants the state Water Resources Control Board to reduce the levels of dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals ever made, going into the bay and taken up by fish.
State officials have issued health advisories warning anglers to limit their consumption of several species of fish caught in the bay because of contamination by mercury, PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl), dioxin and pesticides.
Seventy-six percent of the people who fish in the bay are African American or Asian, according to surveys by environmental groups. And most of them rely on the bay- caught fish as an important staple of their diet, the surveys show.
Greg Karras, a spokesman for Communities for a Better Environment, said the state's policy of merely warning consumers of polluted fish and not eliminating the pollution amounts to a discriminatory application of environmental laws.
"If it's bad enough to have an official health warning, it's bad enough to tell polluters to stop poisoning the bay," Karras said.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency apparently agrees. In a letter to the state water board last week, the EPA said dioxin should be added to the list of pollutants that are impairing San Francisco Bay.
But water board officials say no such listing is warranted. Dioxin levels in the bay are no greater than ambient dioxin levels elsewhere in the country, they say. Indeed, they say, the fish advisories were based on PCB and mercury levels, not dioxin.
Loretta Barsamian, the regional water board's executive director, acknowledged that dioxin is a concern. But she said her agency already is working aggressively with air quality regulators to better understand the sources of dioxin and control them.
Preliminary research shows that the major source of dioxin is exhaust particles from diesel engines, which settle and are washed into the bay by rain.