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California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
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CSPA appeals Maxwell Wastewater Treatment Plant permit, Regional Board ignored regulations

March 12, 2009 -- CSPA has appealed the recently issued wastewater discharge permit for the Maxwell Public Utilities District's Wastewater Treatment Plant.  The facility treats wastewater from the City of Maxwell I Colusa County.  It discharges treated wastewater to Lurline Creek, a tributary of Colusa Basin Drain.  The beneficial uses of Lurline Creek are identified as agricultural irrigation, water contact recreation, warm freshwater aquatic habitat, cold freshwater aquatic habitat, warm fish migration and spawning habitat, wildlife habitat, groundwater recharge and freshwater replenishment.  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 numerous violations, the permit fails to contain legally defensible scientifically based water quality limits for oil & grease, bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, electrical conductivity, fluoride and persistent hydrocarbon pesticides.  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, violates provisions related to chronic toxicity and fails to protect groundwater.

The Maxwell 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.

CSPA Appeal, City of Maxwell Wastewater Treatment Plant