Copper paint is popular among boat owners because the toxicity weakens and kills organisms that latch onto the bottoms of their boats, allowing them to clean and repaint their vessels less often.
One local boat paint dealer, who preferred to go unnamed, thought
Copper paint is popular among boat owners because the toxicity weakens and kills organisms that latch onto the bottoms of their boats, allowing them to clean and repaint their vessels less often.
One local boat paint dealer, who preferred to go unnamed, thought doing away with copper was environmentally beneficial, but he’s frustrated that paint chemicals are constantly being banned.
“Going to some other product is probably a move in the right direction. We used copper, mercury, arsenic, but they’ve all disappeared over the years as scientists figured out that they’re bad for the environment,” he said.
The goal of the program is to have 50% to 80% of the boaters at Balboa Yacht Basin Marina switch to nontoxic bottom paint.
More than 50,000 pounds of copper from boat paint leaches into Newport Bay each year, according to the EPA. A recent Orange County Coastkeeper study found much of the copper from bottom paint settles into sediment at the bottom of the bay rather than washing out of the water with the tide. The copper can be toxic to some of the tiny creatures that live at the bottom of the bay, such as mussels and clams. Coastkeeper water and sediment tests in the area found concentrations of copper in the bay that exceeded state guidelines.
Some cities, like San Diego, have opted to make laws banning copper paint, but Ray Hiemstra, associate director of programs with Coastkeeper, said such stern actions might not be necessary if the incentives offered by the new program are enough to get people to change on their own.
“We’re trying to decide if we really need a regulation or if we offer enough incentives people will change by themselves?” Hiemstra said.
Trace Mari