FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
March 4, 2025

SFPUC Contact: 
communications@sfwater.org

Supreme Court Issues Decision in San Francisco’s Favor in Water Quality Permitting Case 

The U.S. Supreme Court Reaffirmed the Clean Water Act and Required EPA to Issue Permits With Clear Instructions to Prevent Water Pollution

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu and San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) General Manager Dennis Herrera issued the following joint statement after the United States Supreme Court ruled in San Francisco’s favor today in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision instructs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to follow the Clean Water Act (CWA) and issue clear water discharge permits that prevent water pollution before it occurs.

“We are very pleased the Court issued the narrow decision San Francisco sought. This decision upholds the Clean Water Act’s critical role in protecting water quality and simply requires the EPA to fulfill its obligations under the Clean Water Act, as intended by Congress. This ruling makes clear that permitholders like San Francisco are responsible for what they discharge, and the EPA has the tools at its disposal to ensure water quality. But it’s not lawful to punish permitholders for things outside of their control, such as the end-result water quality of a shared body of water, where many other factors affect water quality. This is a good government decision that assures certainty in water quality permitting and that every permittee has predictable, knowable standards to protect water quality.”

The Court held that the CWA allows EPA to issue water quality permits that contain limits only on a permitholder’s discharges, which they can control, and not permits that make permitholders responsible for receiving water quality, which they cannot control. The decision ensures wastewater agencies can protect the environment and prevent pollution by managing their discharges before they reach receiving waters.

As the U.S. Supreme Court wrote: “[W]e hold that §1311(b)(1)(C) does not authorize the EPA to include “end-result” provisions in NPDES permits. Determining what steps a permittee must take to ensure that water quality standards are met is the EPA’s responsibility, and Congress has given it the tools needed to make that determination. If the EPA does what the CWA demands, water quality will not suffer.”

San Francisco’s Combined Sewer System 

Every jurisdiction with a sewer system, including San Francisco, must discharge treated wastewater into an adjacent body of water. While these discharges often necessarily include some low level of pollutants, they are safe and are permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency and authorized state agencies via the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).

San Francisco’s combined sewer and stormwater system collects and treats both wastewater and stormwater in a single system. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission manages two treatment plants that operate 365 days a year, as well as a third wet-weather facility that operates during rain events. This combined sewer system gives San Francisco significant environmental advantage over other jurisdictions with separate pipe systems because it allows the City to treat wastewater and almost all stormwater before discharging it into to the Pacific Ocean or Bay, providing stormwater the same high treatments standards as wastewater. Other municipalities throughout the Bay Area and California do not treat their stormwater, allowing pollutants – bacteria, metals, and other contaminants – to flow into the Pacific Ocean or Bay.

San Francisco has invested more than $2 billion in upgrading its wastewater collection and treatment system to ensure the City remains an environmental leader and continues to do its part to protect the Pacific Ocean and Bay. Additionally, San Francisco plans to invest another $2.36 billion over the next 20 years to implement eight different projects that will continue to protect water quality in San Francisco Bay.

The Clean Water Act 

Before the passage of the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972, the federal government used post-pollution enforcement to regulate individual wastewater dischargers. Rather than regulate the specific pollutant levels that an entity could discharge, federal law allowed pollution to happen first, followed by enforcement. This regulatory system had numerous problems because it did not prevent water pollution before it occurred, was difficult to enforce in practice, and did not give adequate notice to dischargers about how to prevent water quality violations.

The Clean Water Act changed that system by requiring dischargers to proactively obtain permits issued by EPA or authorized state agencies that set effluent limitations, which are specific pollution limits to which a permitholder’s discharges must conform before releasing that wastewater. The Clean Water Act was designed to give permitholders, like San Francisco, clear, operational requirements and discharge limitations to control pollution at the source before discharge. EPA originally followed this approach required by the Clean Water Act.

Under the Clean Water Act, EPA and the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board are required to issue San Francisco NPDES permits specifying the quantities, rates, and concentrations of pollutants San Francisco may discharge into the Pacific Ocean or Bay, or specifying operational requirements and prohibitions to ensure that water quality standards are met.

Case Background 

When the City’s Bayside Permit was up for renewal in 2013, EPA included two provisions in the permits, contrary to Congress’ intent in the Clean Water Act and returning to the pre-Clean Water Act system of post-pollution enforcement. In 2019, under the Trump Administration, EPA again included those provisions in the City’s Oceanside Permit, over San Francisco’s objection. The provisions would hold San Francisco responsible for the “end-results” quality of the receiving water in the Bay or Pacific Ocean, rather than holding the City responsible for what it can control, which is the pollutant levels it is discharging. San Francisco, of course, cannot control the overall water quality in the Bay or the Ocean. Other agencies and entities discharge into them, and there are many other factors that impact water quality and pollution in those water bodies.

Under this scheme, the City could be required to spend billions more than it has already invested in its combined sewer and stormwater system and still not know whether it will face enforcement actions for allegedly “violating” unspecified, unknown, and unknowable “end-result requirements” based on receiving water conditions that San Francisco cannot solely control.

San Francisco challenged the Oceanside permit provisions in court, and sought U.S. Supreme Court review in 2023. The U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari, and Deputy City Attorney Tara Steeley argued San Francisco’s case before the U.S. Supreme Court on October 16, 2024.

Large cities and jurisdictions across the country like Boston, New York, and Washington D.C. shared San Francisco’s concerns and submitted amicus briefs supporting the City’s position. The City was joined by more than 60 amici, including the 400 cities represented by the California League of Cities, the 2,800 members of the National League of Cities, the over 2,300 members of the National Association of Counties, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, and the California Association of Sanitation Agencies.

Read the Supreme Court’s decision, City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency, United States Supreme Court, Case No. 23-753.

About the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission 

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is a department of the City and County of San Francisco. We deliver drinking water to 2.7 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area, collect and treat wastewater for the City and County of San Francisco, and meet more than 75% of the electricity demand in San Francisco. Our mission is to provide our customers with high quality, efficient and reliable water, power, and sewer services in a manner that values environmental and community interests, and sustains the resources entrusted to our care. Learn more at www.sfpuc.gov.