EPA Water Pollution Permit Limits Challenged by San Francisco

San Francisco is challenging the EPA over conditions imposed in a permit that allows the city to send discharge from its combined sewer system into the Pacific Ocean, according to a petition for review in the Ninth Circuit.

The city’s filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit comes after the Environmental Protection Agency refused to review three conditions in the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit. The EPA approved the permit in December 2019.

The first condition bans causing or contributing to a violation of any water-quality standards. The second condition requires reports on sewer overflows ...