| Port of SD Receives Additional Funding for A-8 Anchorage Cleanup |
| By: Ambrosia Sarabia | Wednesday, November 26, 2008 12:00:00 AM |
| Last updated: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 4:24:00 PM |
Last remaining vessels in former free anchorage relocated.
 | | | Photo by: Jack Innis | | Cleared for Cleanup -- San Diego’s former free anchorage area will undergo a thorough cleanup to remove hazardous materials and the remains of derelict vessels from the site. | | |
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NATIONAL CITY -- The removal of derelict vessels and hazardous waste at the A-8 Anchorage has proved to be a costly job for the San Diego Unified Port District. The port was granted additional funding by the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board Nov. 12, to help with the final cleanup phase.
Despite the staff time and funds the port has expended cleaning the site over the past few years, the port has come up short, It requested $200,000 from the Regional Water Quality Control Board to remove the last of the rubbish -- and the port will appropriate $50,000 toward this final cleanup phase.
With the last two remaining vessels at the former free anchorage relocated, and the recent funds approved, the anchorage is ready for an overhaul, said Marguerite Elicone of the Port of San Diego.
“This will allow us to clean up heavier debris -- and do a more extensive cleanup, to get that area returned to a recreational site where people can enjoy boating and other water-related activities,” Elicone said.
The site, once known as “the last free anchorage on the West Coast,” became infamous for the large number of unseaworthy and abandoned vessels that had congregated at the site. As the numbers of environmental issues, and sunken and derelict vessels, began to increase at A-8, so did the burden for the port district, Elicone said.
In 2007, the 82-acre stretch of water in the south bay adjacent to the Sweetwater Channel was officially closed to arriving vessels. Boaters already at the site were put into an 18- to 24-month anchorage phase-out program.
Once the port received a $42,000 grant from the National Marine Fisheries Service Marine Debris Removal Program last December, the anchorage was surveyed with side-scan sonar. The scan determined that 357 different pieces of debris were hidden underwater at the Divers have, so far, removed 3,300 pounds of environmental debris from the bottom of the anchorage -- including batteries, tanks, small motors and electronics, according to David Merk, director of environmental services for the port.
The port has already spent $9 million in the removal of derelict vessels and debris from the former anchorage.
This article first appeared in the November 2008 issue of The Log Newspaper. All or parts of the information contained in this article might be outdated. |
