In a 5-4 ruling, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its authority in its efforts to keep San Francisco from dumping raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, surprising some observers by siding with Justices Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson in dissent, wrote “The entire function of (the provision the EPA seeks to enforce) is to ensure that permitted discharges do not violate state water quality standards. San Francisco’s permit only authorizes discharges that do not degrade water quality below the applicable standard.”.
Unlike most west coast cities, San Francisco’s wastewater treatment combines storm water and sewage. During periods of heavy rain, the treatment plants can be overwhelmed.
A sewage spill at San Francisco’s Southeast WTP after 2.66 inches of rain fell on February 4, 2025. (Video captured by the SF Baykeeper)
The ruling does not mean that the Environmental Protection Agency lacks authority to require San Francisco to reduce its spills. But EPA does have to find a better way of writing its regulations.
EPA’s regulation took aim at the water quality of the ocean, rather than what San Francisco was actually dumping into it. We hope Justice Alito’s claim is correct that “The agency has adequate tools to obtain needed information from permittees without resorting to end-result requirements,” and that, if so, the EPA will develop robust criteria to protect the ocean and the bay that will pass legal muster. The SFPUC’s press release is posted online.
We wish this case had never gone to the Supreme Court. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors urged the SFPUC to settle with EPA rather than ask the Supreme Court to diminish its authority but was ignored. Even if San Francisco makes system improvements and becomes a better steward of its wastewater, what might the precedent of this decision be in other cities across the United States?
Ironically, the Supreme Court’s ruling coincides with the announcement of San Francisco’s “NEWEST OCEANFRONT PARK“, only 1/2 mile from its Oceanside Water Treatment Plant.
Restore Hetch Hetchy remains focused on improving San Francisco’s water supply system so Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley can be returned to its natural splendor. But it’s impossible to ignore the sewage spills in the bay and ocean that threaten both people and wildlife.