EPA Slams California Again, This Time Over Homeless Waste
Trump Targets California Over Pollution From Human Waste
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rapped California for allowing “piles of human feces” and other pollution tied to what it called the state’s “homelessness crisis” to foul nearby waterways, opening a new front in a Trump administration battle with the nation’s most populous state.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler demanded California outline its plans for tackling the problem in a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday.
It’s the latest in a series of administrative actions against the state, whose leaders have criticized President Donald Trump’s environmental record. On Tuesday, Wheeler notified California it had failed to file complete plans for fighting air pollution and risked losing highway funds if it didn’t rectify the problem. Last week, the administration said it would repeal waivers allowing California to set its own standards for zero-emission vehicles and tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions.
Separately, the Justice Department opened an antitrust probe into a voluntary pact California made with four automakers over vehicle efficiency.
Environmentalists questioned the timing and the nature of Wheeler’s letter. Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project, noted the EPA’s “sudden interest” in enforcing anti-pollution rules after it “has done so little to enforce illegal discharges from much larger sources across the U.S.”
‘Political Weapon’
“A regulatory agency’s enforcement authority is not supposed to be used as a political weapon, which is obviously happening here,” said Schaeffer, who previously directed civil enforcement at the EPA. “It’s too late for us to believe the noise they are making in California reflects anything more than a White House desire to punish its enemies.”
In his letter on Thursday, Wheeler accused California of failing to meet its obligations to protect the environment by inadequately treating wastewater and allowing sewage from homeless people to seep into waterways.
Wheeler cited the health risks of the “growing homelessness crisis developing in major California cities,” asserting that human waste deposited on streets and sidewalks can be swept by rain into storm sewers, carrying pathogens and other contaminants into nearby waters.
“California needs to fulfill its obligation to protect its water bodies and, more importantly, public health, and it should take this letter as notice that EPA is going to insist that it meets its environmental obligations,” Wheeler said in a separate news release.
Common Thread
The EPA’s letter, which falls short of a formal enforcement action, gives Newsom 30 days to respond.
The California governor’s office decried the move, saying it was “not about clean air, clean water or helping our state with homelessness” and instead is just “political retribution” against the state, which has become a chief adversary as the administration eases environmental regulations.
“There’s a common theme in the news coming out of this White House this week,” said Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom. “The president is abusing the powers of the presidency and weaponizing government to attack his political opponents.”
The EPA letter cites 26 wastewater treatment plants in California as being in significant non-compliance with water pollution regulations. A Bloomberg analysis of the agency’s enforcement data shows 27 other states have more plants in the same condition that are in significant non-compliance. Missouri alone has more than 300 of them.
Wheeler also singled out San Francisco for “routinely discharging” sewage and stormwater into San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean -- a charge the city disputes.
Sewage discharge from aging water treatment facilities is a nationwide problem. Like many other municipalities, San Francisco relies on a combined wastewater system that mixes together stormwater and sewage -- a design that taxes the ability of treatment facilities to keep up during periods of heavy rain. When deluges overwhelm treatment facilities, they can discharge untreated or partially treated sewage directly into water.
A senior EPA official said San Francisco is unique because while other cities still rely on combined stormwater and sewage systems, most of them are under federal orders dictating plans for remedying the problem.
Debris Filtered
San Francisco Mayor London Breed countered that the city’s combined sewer system is “one of the best and most effective” in the nation, ensuring that all debris entering storm drains is filtered out and none of it flows into the bay or ocean.
Mandy Gunasekara, a former Trump EPA official, said the agency’s letter shows the president “will make California step up and fix the problems in its own backyard -- and if they won’t or can’t, he will step in.”
Wheeler told reporters Thursday he began examining conditions in California after a March hearing when he was pressed for details about drinking water in Compton. Wheeler said he subsequently discussed the issue and the agency’s planned response with the White House.
--With assistance from Pat Rizzuto, Emily Dooley and Romy Varghese.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jennifer A. Dlouhy in Washington at jdlouhy1@bloomberg.net;David Schultz in Arlington at dschultz39@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Ros Krasny
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