Baykeeper's Sick of Sewage Initiative

After more than a decade of efforts to stop sewage spills in the Bay Area, Baykeeper launched a Sick of Sewage Initiative to rein in the Bay’s sewage spill problem. The initiative includes:

  • investigating sewage agencies with a history of sewage spills,
  • filing lawsuits to compel system-wide improvements,
  • conducting a public education campaign for how Bay Area residents can help reduce spills,
  • working with state regulators and legislators to improve spill enforcement and penalties, and
  • issuing a comprehensive report on wastewater treatment problems in the Bay Area.
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    Preventing Sewage Spills on the San Mateo Peninsula

    Baykeeper filed suit against the City of Burlingame to hold the city accountable for rampant sewage spills and the illegal use of a pipeline to a sensitive marsh area. Now, we've reached a successful settlement with the City to bring it in line with clean water laws.

    Baykeeper also filed suit against the town of Hillsborough and the Burlingame Hills area of San Mateo County to enforce the Clean Water Act against them for illegal sewage spills. Read more about our suits to prevent sewage spills to the Bay from the San Mateo Peninsula.

    Sewage Spill Legislation

    Baykeeper is sponsoring a bill in the California Legislature to improve the transparency and accountability of sewage operations across the state. Read more about the California Clean Water Act.

    How You Can Help Reduce Sewage Spills to the Bay

    Baykeeper has the ways you can help prevent sewage spills and overflows to the Bay with ten easy steps. Read more about how you can help.

    A History of Stopping Sewage Dumping Throughout the Bay

    San Francisco Baykeeper has been working for ten years to eliminate sewage and industrial wastewater discharges from the San Francisco Bay.  In the last few years, San Francisco Baykeeper successfully leveraged sewage infrastructure upgrades in the cities of Vallejo and Richmond – two of the worst sewage polluters to the Bay – and is currently working with the East Bay Municipal Utilities District to improve systems in East Bay cities.  On February 11, we filed a lawsuit against the City of Burlingame to hold the city accountable for rampant sewage spills and the illegal use of a pipeline into a sensitive marsh area.  Sadly, there are a number of additional sewage offenders in the Bay Area, and San Francisco Baykeeper plans to target at least one half dozen more cities with lawsuits in coming years in order to put an end to sewage spills.  

    Baykeeper’s long-term goal has been to hold the worst violators accountable and to use the courts to force cities to invest in capital upgrades to their collection and treatment systems.  However, the scale of the southern Marin spill – one of the largest in recent years from any size treatment plant – has prompted Baykeeper to increase pressure for a systemic overhaul of Bay Area sewage systems.