Trump’s EPA fires new round in water pollution fight with SF - San Francisco Chronicle

The Environmental Protection Agency fanned the flames of an ongoing dispute with San Francisco on Thursday, reaffirming its stance that the city’s water agency improperly discharges wastewater into the ocean.

In a letter to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, EPA officials reiterated their assessment that the city was out of step with its wastewater discharge permit, which regulates water quality standards. The letter also implied that state water regulators may have erred in issuing permits to the SFPUC. The federal government gives the state the authority to issue wastewater discharge permits under the Clean Water Act.

Federal officials wrote that they doubted the SFPUC could “demonstrate compliance” in the near term with the terms of its permits, and so they “strongly urge you to enter into ... an enforceable agreement with the EPA.”

The EPA hit San Francisco with a violation notice in October, accusing the city of improperly discharging waste into the ocean. On top of alleging that the SFPUC wasn’t meeting federal pollution standards for wastewater discharge, the EPA also accused the city of improperly maintaining its sewer system and failing to keep adequate records when people might have been exposed to pollution. Thursday’s letter was a rebuttal to correspondence the SFPUC sent to the EPA in October arguing it was not in violation of its permits.

City officials, including Mayor London Breed and City Attorney Dennis Herrera, previously denounced the violation notice as a politically motivated ploy by the Trump administration to stick a thumb in the eye of San Francisco and California. President Trump, citing no evidence, hinted at the violation notice in September after remarking that used needles and other pollutants were flowing into the ocean.

Despite the accusations, a few weeks after issuing its violation notice, the EPA gave the SFPUC access to a $236 million loan for water infrastructure improvements.

The EPA also took issue with the state of California in September. A letter accused California of failing to deal with several cases of water pollution, and federal officials called out the “piles of human feces” in San Francisco.

The SFPUC, which is in the midst of a multibillion dollar upgrade of the city’s century-old sewer system, maintains that San Francisco is in full compliance with the terms of its discharge permits under the Clean Water Act and there is no threat to public health or the environment.

Michael Carlin, deputy general manger of the SFPUC, said he saw some inconsistency at the heart of the EPA’s threats: “Why do we need to be ‘urged’ if we’re such an egregious discharger?” Carlin asked, rhetorically.

A history of non-compliance would likely have already prompted action by the EPA, Carlin said, rather than a plea to enter a voluntary deal. The EPA, he said, was reinterpreting the terms of the wastewater discharge permits in ways that could put the city in jeopardy of noncompliance.

“They’re ‘urging’ us because they’re not sure if they’re on firm ground,” Carlin said, adding that the SFPUC would continue conversations with state regulators as it prepares a response to the EPA’s latest letter. The EPA could still hit the city with an enforcement action, which would escalate the dispute significantly, and could lead to a legal battle should the city decide to contest it.

“EPA’s expectation ... is that San Francisco will take steps to improve their system to comply with water quality standards,” a spokeswoman for the agency said.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa

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Trump’s EPA fires new round in water pollution fight with SF - San Francisco Chronicle
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