The spills have prompted renewed calls from environmental groups to upgrade the region’s aging sewer system. “What we're seeing here is the breakdown of the system,” said Sejal Choksi Chugh, executive director of SFBaykeeper.
The onslaught of fierce storms that have drenched an already saturated state have also overwhelmed the Bay Area’s sewer systems, resulting in the release of millions of gallons of sewage into San Francisco Bay and its tributaries, an Examiner investigation found.
“What we're seeing here is the breakdown of the system,” said Sejal Choksi Chugh, executive director of Baykeeper, an environmental watchdog. “When you have that huge inflow of excess water that the system is not built for, you end up having an overwhelm of the wastewater treatment plants.” White acknowledged the widespread unauthorized discharges across the Bay Area, adding that EBMUD is under a consent decree with the water board and the Environmental Protection Agency to fix leaky pipes across the East Bay, which should help prevent sanitary sewer overflows in the future.
But unlike other Bay Area counties, the SFPUC doesn’t report spills to the state’s office of emergency services because The City’s combined sewer system “doesn’t spill,” according to a spokesperson for the agency. And while these winter storms pummeling California are nothing new, they also offer us a glimpse of a new normal as the state whipsaws between intense drought and sloshing downpours. “California is experiencing both a drought emergency and a flood emergency,” said Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth at a recent press conference.
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