There’s still hope for a clean San Diego Bay.

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board today ordered those responsible for polluting San Diego Bay to clean up their mess. The order directs shipyards NASSCO and BAE, the Navy, SDG&E, the City of San Diego, and the Port of San Diego to dredge a small portion of the 60-acre shipyard site south of the Coronado Bay Bridge to remove the worst of the pollution hot-spots caused by decades of shipbuilding, industrial activity and stormwater runoff.

This is a huge victory for Coastkeeper and Environmental Health Coalition and the community members we represent. The Regional Board has been considering taking action for more than 20 years. Dozens of staff members and volunteers from San Diego Coastkeeper and EHC have devoted thousands of hours over the past two decades to get a cleanup order adopted.

This victory belongs to all of us.

Perhaps the most difficult part of the struggle was the huge amount of time and resources it took to stand on equal footing with the shipyards flush with cash and an army of well-paid attorneys. I honestly believe their strategy was to try to overwhelm us to get us to give up and go away.

Thanks to your support and the support of our generous funders, we were able to stick it out and ultimately achieve a victory.

I’m confident that without Coastkeeper’s and EHC’s participation, the cleanup would be much worse–or possibly non-existent. If you’re impressed with what we have achieved here, please support us so that we can continue to fight the good fight and win important victories for San Diegans and our environment.