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CSPA appeals San Andreas Wastewater Permit to State Board, asks that it be brought into compliance with federal and state regulations

March 11, 2009 -- CSPA has appealed the recently issued wastewater discharge permit for the San Andreas Wastewater Treatment Plant.  The facility provides sewerage service to the community of San Andreas, in Calaveras County.  It discharges treated wastewater into the North Fork of the Calaveras River, above New Hogan Reservoir.  The permit was approved 5 February 2009 by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board and appealed to the State Water Resources Control Board on 4 March 2009. 

CSPA's petition alleges that the Regional Board ignored specific regulatory requirements mandated by the federal Clean Water Act.  Among the numerous violations, the permit allows a mixing zone (i.e., a zone where water quality standards don't apply) that fails to comply with the Policy for Implementation of Toxics Standards for Inland Surface Waters, Enclosed Bays, and Estuaries of California.  It also fails to contain legally defensible scientifically based water quality limits for oil & grease, aluminum, bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, chlordane, chlorine residual, iron, copper, cyanide, dichlorobromomethane, manganese, methylene blue, and zinc.  It includes an inadequate antidegradation analysis, improperly establishes effluent limits based on effluent hardness rather than ambient hardness, illegally backslides from the previous permit, fails to contain required mass limits and violates provisions related to acute and chronic toxicity.

The San Andreas permit continues the Schwarzeneger Administration's business-friendly policy of ignoring explicit requirements mandated by federal law in issuing permits for wastewater discharge.  This U-turn in environmental protection increasingly threatens California's already depressed fisheries. 

CSPA routinely reviews, provides comments and, where necessary, appeals and litigates Regional Board permits that are not protective of fisheries and beneficial uses and fail to conform to regulatory requirements.  The State Water Board has 270 days to act upon an appeal of a Regional Board action.