San Francisco's picturesque bay is now the center of a scandalous pollution row, as the city stands accused of pouring millions of gallons of sewage directly into the waters. San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental watchdog group, is poised to legally challenge both the City and County of San Francisco and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), alleging flagrant violations of the Clean Water Act.

Through tenacity and the Freedom of Information Act, Baykeeper has unearthed documents from the SFPUC, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board that showcase hundreds of infractions over the past five years. Astoundingly, in what's classified as a typical year, the SFPUC is accused of dumping approximately 1.2 billion gallons of contaminated mix containing stormwater runoff and sewage. This stew of pollution, not surprisingly, is teeming with feces, chemicals, and trash, according to Baykeeper.

The volume of this urban mire entering the bay soars to over 2 billion gallons on particularly soggy years. To render this in more concrete terms, "San Francisco is dumping raw sewage and trash directly into the Bay at a magnitude that’s almost incomprehensible," said Baykeeper managing attorney Eric Buescher in a statement obtained by Baykeeper.

At the heart of the problem, the SFPUC has confirmed through its own estimates that six percent of the deluge is untreated sewage, translating to 120 million gallons in wet years. This is enough content to brim over 180 Olympic-sized swimming pools, finds data sourced from agency documents. The discharges have been tracked to Mission Creek and Islais Creek, popular local spots for residents who fish, live, and enjoy recreational activities. Close to all of these sewage episodes occur here, turning local waterways into petri dishes festering with E. coli and other bacteria, inciting the city to shut down beaches and waterways on numerous occasions, as the Baykeeper reported.

Besides the clear health risks to humans, the ecological damage is palpable. High nitrogen levels resulting from the sewage pollution are implicated in the proliferating algae blooms that have already claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Bay fish in just the past two summers. Baykeeper’s investigation teams, after monitoring discharge sites, have corroborated the presence of not just fecal matter in the water, but a plethora of urban refuse that includes syringes and plastics.

The response from San Francisco Baykeeper is one of zero tolerance. "There’s no excuse for polluting the Bay with sewage and trash," declared Sejal Choksi-Chugh, Baykeeper’s executive director, in a quote from the Baykeeper’s press release. Baykeeper’s proposed litigation aims to hold San Francisco accountable, seeking to end the city’s assumed ability to treat its sewage discharges as harmless, and to confront what they frame as a clear dereliction of both legal responsibility and environmental stewardship.