Sewage Scourge: East Bay Utility District Exposed for Discharging Millions of Gallons of Raw Sewage into San Francisco Bay

In a shocking indictment, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) and seven East Bay communities have been ordered to pay a staggering $1.5 billion for discharging millions of gallons of raw sewage into San Francisco Bay.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the Clean Water Act settlement, which requires EBMUD and the communities to conduct extensive system repairs to eliminate the sewage discharges over a 21-year period. The work is expected to cost approximately $1.5 billion.

According to the EPA, since 2009, the agency, state and local regulators, and environmental groups have worked to reduce sewage discharges from East Bay communities. During that period, interim actions required EBMUD and the East Bay communities to improve their sewer maintenance practices and gather information to identify priorities for investment.

The San Francisco Bay, which covers 1,600 square miles and is home to millions of migratory birds, is under threat from many sources of pollution, including crumbling wastewater infrastructure that allows sewage to escape from the system. During rainstorms, older sewer systems can be overwhelmed, releasing rivers of sewage before fully treated.

“For many years, the health of San Francisco Bay has been imperiled by ongoing pollution, including enormous discharges of raw and partially treated sewage from communities in the East Bay,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “Many of these discharges are the result of aging, deteriorated sewer infrastructure that will be fixed under the EPA order.”

The seven East Bay communities in the EBMUD settlement are: the City of Alameda, the City of Albany, the City of Berkeley, the City of Emeryville, the City of Oakland, the City of Piedmont, and the Stege Sanitary District (serving El Cerrito, Kensington, and a portion of Richmond).

“The public has been required to repair their own sewer laterals for over two years now, so it is past time that the local agencies aggressively repair their sewer systems,” said Bruce Wolfe, Executive Officer of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board. “This settlement spells out how the agencies will work with the public over the next 21 years to do just that and protect the bay.”

The settlement is the result of a Clean Water Act enforcement action brought by the EPA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the State Water Resources Control Board, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board, San Francisco Baykeeper, and Our Children’s Earth Foundation.

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