San Bruno Views

By now it’s now secret that the city of San Bruno is experiencing issues with the current waste water infrastructure. Last week the California Regional Water Quality Control Board threatened the city with a $630,000 fine for spilling nearly 1.9 million gallons of sewage into the Bay and the Pacific Ocean.  On Tuesday, a lawsuit was filed in federal court by the advocacy group San Francisco Baykeeper. Although the city has an aggressive plan to address the issues over the next ten years, the lawsuit could lead to hefty fines that the city can not afford and will detract from the city’s ability to fix the issues in a timely manner. Based on the Baykeeper’s litigation against other cities along the bay, the lawsuit is seen as a mechanism to get the city to address the issues and improve waste water operations.

The issues for the city regarding it’s waste water infrastructure are really beginning to pile up. The California Regional Water Quality Control Board is scheduled to hold a meeting on May 12 to discuss the possible $630,000 in fines that the city may incur. According to water board spokeswoman Lila Tang, “The board’s fines are payable to the state, but local governments often settle such cases with funding for local and regional environmental projects and sewage system improvements.” While it is not clear at this time how the propose fines from the Water Quality Control Board will affect the city, it is clear that San Bruno’s waste water spills are gaining attention. The advocacy group San Francisco Baykeeper this week filed a suit in U.S. district court seeking an order to force San Bruno to stop the leaks. The suit asks that the city be fined as much as $40,000 for each day the city has violated clean water rules from December 2004 to January 2009. The suit implicates San Bruno to at least 58 spills over the past five years. At $40,000 a pop the suit could be asking for as much as $2.32 million dollars in fines.

Sadly, this was somewhat expected. Millbrae councilman Daniel Quigg, speaking at the North San Mateo County Association of Realtors last week, indicated that the San Francisco Baykeeper had already filed suit against Millbrae and that other lawsuits against cities all over the bay area were anticipated. In a written statement Tuesday, City Manager Connie Jackson said that San Bruno has established an aggressive program to upgrade and rehabilitate its aging sewer system, which is 50 to 100 years old. The city plans to spend $64 million over the next 10 years in upgrades. The city’s 13,000 ratepayers will cover the cost of the projects through higher fees.

“Baykeeper’s lawsuit against the city of San Bruno takes money away from an already tight budget,” Jackson said.

San Bruno understands that it needs to address the waste water issues. The California Regional Water Quality Control Board understands San Bruno needs to address the waste water issues. The San Francisco Baykeeper is a reputable advocacy group concerned with keeping the bay clean. However, will slapping a cash strapped city with nearly $2.5 million in fines and penalties help the situation or exacerbate it? According to the press release from the San Francisco Baykeeper the lawsuit aims ”to compel the City to undertake an aggressive inspection and repair program to dramatically reduce it’s sewage spills.” Additionally, the San Franicsco Baykeeper recently settled a suit filed in December against the city of San Carlos. As part of the same press release, ”The pollution watchdog group sued the city in December after investigations revealed that San Carlos spills thousands of gallons of raw sewage from its sewer lines every year in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.” To this end, an agreement was worked out between the City of San Carlos and the Baykeeper to make substantial improvements to sewage operations.

It appears that the Baykeeper is using the lawsuit as a means of enforcing the City into making improvements to it’s waste water infrastructure. It is the goal of the organization to get cities to agree to comprehensive operations, maintenance, repairs and upgrades and to enable a long term solution to their sewage spills. The City of San Bruno has established an aggressive program to upgrade the sewer system and will most likely work with the Baykeeper to reach an agreement to make these improvements. If an agreement can be reached between the City and the San Francisco Baykeeper then the lawsuit may not be seen as such a dramatic issue, but rather a way for the two entities to work together and reach a common goal.