CSPA Appeals Delta Wastewater Permits

For immediate release:
6 June 2007

For information:
Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director, 209-464-5067, 209-938-9053 (cell)
Michael Jackson, CSPA Attorney, 530-283-0712, 530-927-7387 (cell)

CSPA Appeals Tracy and Mountain House Wastewater Permits Allowing Increased Discharge of Pollutants into Degraded Delta

(Stockton, CA) The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) has appealed the recently issued NPDES wastewater permits for Tracy and Mountain House to the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board).  The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) adopted the permits, authorizing the discharge of wastewater into the South Delta, on 4 May 2007. 

The South Delta is home to a number of species, including Delta smelt, protected pursuant to state and federal endangered species acts.  Toxicity has been identified as contributing to the population collapse of Delta smelt.  South Delta water quality is formally identified as not supporting identified beneficial uses because of diazinon, chlorpyrifos, Group A pesticides, mercury, DDT, electrical conductivity (salt), unknown toxicity and dissolved oxygen deficiencies.  Elevated temperatures are also identified as problematic for critical life stages of a number of species.  The Tracy permit is a renewal of an existing permit that allows a significant increase in the volume of wastewater discharged.  The Mountain House permit represents an entirely new wastewater discharge from a community that will eventually house more than 50,000 residents.  Both represent substantial increases in the mass-load of pollutants discharged into Old River in the South Delta.

“The South Delta is one of the most polluted waterbodies in the nation.  At a time when pelagic species in the South Delta, including Delta smelt, are experiencing catastrophic decline partly attributable to toxicity, and the export pumps have been shut down in an effort to keep Delta smelt from going extinct, the Regional Board’s actions in allowing substantial increases in the discharge of toxic wastewater in violation of state and federal regulations are inexcusable,” said CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings.  “The last few years have witnessed an abrupt U-turn by the Regional Board: from protecting waterways from dischargers to protecting dischargers from the law.  This cannot continue if the estuary’s degraded ecosystem is going to survive,” he said.

CSPA’s appeal alleges that the adopted permits violate fundamental permitting requirements of the Clean Water Act and are non-protective of an already seriously degraded Delta ecosystem.  Among the principal causes of action in the CSPA petitions are the permits: 1) illegally allow discharges of massive concentrations of salt in violation of the regulations, 2) ignore legally required chronic and acute toxicity limitations, 3) do not contain required antidegradation analyses, 4) violate state and federal endangered species acts and 5) fail to comply with explicit legally mandated procedures for developing effluent limits for a number of toxic constituents, including elevated temperature and mercury.

The State Board has the option of affirming, modifying or sending the permits back to the Regional Board for revision.  Following a State Board action, CSPA has the option of going to court.   CSPA has vowed to litigate if necessary to protect Delta species hovering on the brink of extinction.

“The Regional Board has dual approaches to enforcing the law; one for the politically powerful, another for the politically weak,” said CSPA attorney Michael Jackson.  “Given the looming crisis in the Delta and the fact that the state Department of Water Resources, Department of Fish and Game and the federal Bureau of Reclamation have all identified toxic water quality as a cause contributing to the collapse of Delta smelt populations; the Board cannot continue business as usual,” he said.

CSPA also appealed the NPDES permits that were adopted by the Regional Board on 4 May 2007 for the City of Biggs (Butte County) and the City of Angels (Calaveras County) because of a failure to comply with basic state and federal regulatory requirements. 
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CSPA is a public benefit conservation and research organization established in 1983 for the purpose of conserving, restoring, and enhancing the state’s water quality and fishery resources and their aquatic ecosystems and associated riparian habitats.  CSPA has actively promoted the protection of water quality and fisheries throughout California before state and federal agencies, the State Legislature and Congress and regularly participates in administrative and judicial proceedings on behalf of its members to protect, enhance, and restore California’s water quality and fisheries.


Bill Jennings, Chairman
Executive Director
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
3536 Rainier Avenue
Stockton, CA 95204
p: 209-464-5067
c: 209-938-9053
f: 209-464-1028
e: deltakeep [at] aol.com