San Francisco’s combined stormwater and wastewater system becomes overwhelmed during heavy rains. This forces SF Public Utilities Commission to open gates intentionally around the city to allow the high volume of stormwater mixed with sewage and trash-filled urban runoff to go into the Bay.
Field investigators from San Francisco Baykeeper captured footage and photos this morning showing the floodgates overflowing into Mission Creek, which feeds into the Bay, including clearly visible raw fecal matter and trash.
Documents obtained by Baykeeper indicate that SFPUC discharges roughly 1.2 billion gallons of combined stormwater runoff and sewage annually, which contains feces, bacteria, viruses, chemicals, and trash. In a wet year, the records indicate the volume of discharge can exceed 2 billion gallons. SFPUC estimates that six percent of its total discharge is untreated sewage.
Last year, San Francisco Baykeeper took legal action against SFPUC and the City and County of San Francisco for repeated violations of the Clean Water Act. The nonprofit watchdog organization obtained information through public records requests from SFPUC, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board, and identified hundreds of Clean Water Act violations over the last five years. The US EPA and California’s Attorney General have joined Baykeeper with a similar legal action. The litigation is currently pending.