San Francisco wins Supreme Court case against EPA over wastewater discharge into bay, Pacific Ocean

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The city of San Francisco won a Supreme Court case on Tuesday against the Environmental Protection Agency or EPA over the wastewater that is being discharged into the bay and the rules it follows.

It was a fight taken to the highest court of the law. The focus: water waste into the bay. And the Supreme Court sided with San Francisco.

"The EPA had a practice of what is known as End Results Requirements, or in other words, they would measure the overall pollution in the ocean or the bay, which could have been caused by numerous sources, not us, and try to hold us accountable for that. Rather than hold us accountable fairly for what our city puts into the water," said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu.

He said the city has been following strict guidelines under the Water Pollution Control Act of 1972.

"Our city has spent billions of dollars to ensure that our waters are clean, that we are not polluting into the bay or into the ocean," said Chiu. "The federal government was insisting on potential infrastructure," he added.

According to City Attorney Chiu, this lawsuit saved San Franciscans money.

"EPA could have forced San Francisco to make over $10 billions of dollars of capital expenditures which would have caused our water bills and our sewer bills to increase ten-fold from $850,000 a year to nearly $9,000 a year for repair without much improvement in the quality of the water," said Chiu.

According to San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission during intense storms 94% of the water discharge is storm water which means about 6% is sewage.

We checked the city's water quality map monitored by the city's Public Utilities Commission and the latest water samples are up to standard.

One site was reported as "orange" with elevated concentrations of bacteria. The court's decision created a wave of concern among environmental advocates.

"This will have an impact throughout California and throughout the country. The city has provided a blueprint to other municipalities to industrial entities that discharge pollutants into water bodies as to how to avoid accountability or restrictions on their conduct," said Eric Buescher, Managing Attorney for SF Baykeeper.

In a statement the EPA said: "It's reviewing the decision."

During Tuesdays Board of Supervisor's meeting, Supervisor Myrna Melgar spoke about the overall environmental implications she believes this decision will have and highlighted.

"Despite today's ruling, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commissions still has the responsibility to uphold the highest standards for water quality and environmental stewardship," said Supervisor Melgar.