With yellow/mustard algae, a drain/refill won't help unless you get behind light niches, under removable ladders, and clean all pool equipment (poles, brushes, etc.) and it sounds like you've done the latter (clean equipment). The algae likes to hang out in shady areas and takes higher levels of chlorine to kill so if you don't get rid of all of it then it will come back (unless one maintains a higher FC of around 15% of the CYA level, but that can become impractical).
From what I can tell from previous posts about this pool, you started taking charge of your pool in August, 2007 getting a TF-100 test kit. The pool was like pond water when you opened in May, 2008 because I assume you let the pool go for closing. Then there were some filter issues where a sock over a return captured live sweat bees.
In August, 2008 you mention fighting some algae that looked like dust/pollen. You and several people reported similar issues in the 2009 thread
Algae I.D. PLEASE! though some seemed to have pollen (on covers and in skimmer socks) while others may have had yellow/mustard algae. One person got some from the bottom of the pool and looked under a microscope to find spores which is more like pollen than algae.
There were no reports of problems in 2010, but I assume from your "Year 3" subject title that you had the same problems but did not report them here.
In June, 2011 it was reported that the pool was a swamp in the spring (again, I assume the pool is "let go" during the winter).
So in everything I read, I only saw shocking being done and nothing about getting behind light niches, under removable ladders, though you did clean pool equipment and perhaps some of these are not applicable to your pool. Also, from pictures early on, it didn't look like yellow/mustard algae. And if you've truly got high copper levels in the water, then maybe it is just lots of pollen since we know there were serious filter problems in the past that didn't catch the "dust". Also, if this green dust settles in sunny areas, then it is unlikely to be yellow/mustard algae.
Did you ever get the filter in good shape so that it would capture finer particles properly? Does your pool have submerged lights or a removable ladder that you could check? I know you said you cleaned equipment. If you have yellow/mustard algae, then it will almost certainly be lurking in those areas in copious quantities. Also, it sounds like your (vinyl) pool probably does not have a floor drain so how is the bottom circulation? Are the returns pointed in a way to ensure that chlorine reaches the bottom of the pool?