By Abbie Black / CBS8 / August 15, 2025
What appears to be pristine water in San Diego Bay is hiding a disturbing secret beneath the surface.
University of San Diego graduate students working with a local company have discovered alarming levels of heavy metals, microplastics and invasive species in Mission Bay and San Diego Bay using innovative cleanup booms made from recycled materials.
The partnership, called 24/7 Blue, pairs USD students with San Diego-based Earthwise Sorbents to test sustainable cleanup technology that could serve as a model for ports and marinas nationwide.
“It’s unbelievable the amount of material that we are picking up,” said Dr. Michel Boudrias, who chairs USD’s sustainability task force. “We’re picking up 30 times the amount of heavy metals that are typically out there.”
The 5-pound, 10-foot booms are placed in local waters for two to three months before being replaced. When flipped over, the seemingly clean-looking devices reveal the extent of contamination lurking in San Diego’s waterways.
The booms are manufactured from recycled and repurposed materials, including polyurethane surfboard foam and polypropylene fabrics, giving waste products a second life as environmental cleanup tools.
“It’s full of heavy metals, different types of chemicals, like hydrocarbons,” Gunner Kolon, a USD environmental marine science graduate student said, examining bags of used boom strips that had been submerged for three to four months. The contamination includes copper, zinc, arsenic, invasive species and microplastics.
Boudrias is leading the research and says the approach is proactive rather than reactive. The research provides critical long-term measurements for analyzing the ocean’s ecosystem. Boudrias has collected 15 years of data in Mission Bay.
“We’re really particularly focusing on cleaning up the oil, the metals, and then determining what’s happening in the ecology of the bay,” Boudrias said.
Once contaminants are pulled from the booms, they undergo evaluation to determine disposal methods. Materials deemed hazardous waste are handled according to environmental regulations, while safer materials can be sent to landfills. USD is also exploring extracting biofuel from collected contaminants.
Boudrias said expansion plans include South Bay areas plagued by Tijuana sewage pollution.
“Could we bring in our project and start putting our booms into some of the areas that are maybe the most effective, like Imperial Beach, for example?” he said.
The partnership with the Port of San Diego creates hands-on learning opportunities for students while addressing environmental challenges.
“One of the great things with the class we have is not only are students learning how to do science, we’re preparing the next generation of scientists,” Boudrias said.
For Kolon, the work provides personal satisfaction beyond academic achievement.
“It feels great to clean up any part of the ocean,” he said.
The 24/7 Blue partnership demonstrates how universities and private companies can collaborate on environmental solutions while providing workforce development opportunities in the growing field of ocean cleanup technology.
This makes me sick that we can’t swim safely in the water we pay so much to live near and enjoy. San Diego is not doing enough to educate locals and tourists on the potential dangers of going in the water. I tried to swim yesterday at Kellogg Beach and there were gold flakes everywhere- metal flakes. Meanwhile kids, adults and dogs are swimming in the water having no clue the harm that is potentially being done. Ideally we deserve to have clean swimming water. But we should be able to make educated choices.
Two key points to keep in mind about this fearmongering: (1) the scientific maxim, “Sola dosis facit venenum” or, “The dose makes the poison,” and (2) below is the complete list, updated as of this morning, of people who have been documented to have died or have been materially harmed by the microscopic amount of heavy metals or microplastics in San Diego bays. Furthermore, human beings need a number of heavy metals such as iron, cobalt, copper, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc to survive. See above Number 1. But all metals and other chemicals that we need to survive are toxic at excessive concentrations, such dihydrogen monoxide.
List of people who have been documented to have died or have been materially harmed by the microscopic amount of heavy metals or microplastics in San Diego bays:
1.
End of List
This “fear mongering” has a long history; SD Bay has been toxic for decades and it took decades for some level of cleaning to finally happen; Mission Bay has a wretched history as well; but gee, since it’s all fear mongering, I guess we don’t need to worry or be concerned — I guess less jobs for scientists and those students will have to find alternative studies. And all that work by the Environmental Health Coalition was for not.
First and foremost dose alone does not make the poison. This 500 years old claim was thoroughly refuted when scientists were forced to take a closer look at lead by Herbert Needelman in 1972. He showed that minuscule levels of lead in drinking water (50 ppb) was associated with a significant decrease in IQ. First he was accused of being a bad scientist and the study only showed association not cause but eventually others confirmed his results. Schubert 1979 showed insignificant amounts of lead and a tiny amount of mercury (LD 1) killed all the animals emphatically demonstrated synergy which destroys the dose alone toxicology.
Lastly the solution is here and has been for over 20 years EmeraMed’s NBMI. It isn’t yet available for humans but it does the same thing in the environment. It quenches toxicity of mercury arsenic cadmium lead permanently. Lets imbed the booms with a few tons of NBMI and remove an equal amount of the blunder from the past.
Death is not the issue. Chronic injury is.