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March 18, 2005
EPA Sites San Jose in Water Pollution Oversight
According to the San Jose Mercury News, the Environmental Protectection Agency (EPA) has sited the city of San Jose, CA with "serious deficiencies" in the way it regulates water pollution coming from factories and other industrial sources into San Francisco Bay.
The action requires San Jose's environmental services department to tighten oversight of 349 industrial facilities or face fines of up to $32,500 a day.
"San Jose's inadequate control over these facilities jeopardizes the sewer system and has led to increases in discharges of toxic pollutants to San Francisco Bay," said Alexis Strauss, regional director of the EPA's water division in San Francisco.
San Jose's wastewater plant (pictured), in Alviso, is among the most technically advanced in the United States. It removes organic matter and other materials that come from shower drains, sinks and toilets, before releasing millions of gallons of treated water into the bay every day that is far cleaner than discharges decades ago. But the plant cannot completely filter out toxic metals such as lead, copper, mercury, cadmium and other materials such as cyanide, so those must be reduced at the source.
San Jose leaders said they are working with EPA inspectors to correct the problems.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at March 18, 2005 06:04 PM
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