Accomplishments
Through the efforts of the Environmental Law & Policy Clinic, Coastkeeper litigation and regulatory actions have:
- Provided the impetus for a $240 million increase in funding to address sewage spills in San Diego, resulting in the decline of spills by 58% from 2000 to 2003 (from 365 to 153) and decline in beach closures by nearly 50% over the same period.
- Required Camp Pendleton to implement a strict prevention and response program for sewage spills and to proceed as quickly as possible with the construction of a state-of-the-art tertiary sewage treatment plant to replace existing wastewater treatment facilities that date back to the 1940s and 50s.
- Fostered the City of San Diego to undertake a pilot study to test state-of-the-art secondary treatment technology at Point Loma (in hopes of upgrading the entire plant) and implement an improved ocean monitoring program to determine the full impacts of the facility on local waters.
- Established a consent decree with the City of Encinitas, creating a stormwater pollution prevention program that is a model for the region.
- Achieved a consent decree in December 1997 with the California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS) that forced the agency to reduce the toxic stormwater that flows untreated from 11 highways and construction sites into San Diego (District 11) watersheds.
- Worked to bring auto dismantlers in San Diego into compliance with California's Industrial Stormwater Permit.
- Caused federal and state agencies to make the “Total Maximum Daily Load” program a high priority with a dramatic increase in funding support this program, even though the defense actually prevailed in court.
- Achieved its first major success with the North County Open Space Coalition in August of 2003, when the California Coastal Commission unanimously approved Carlsbad's plans to develop the region's first environmentally-friendly for municipal golf course.
- Coastkeeper continues to address the serious border sewage situation through its outreach and education campaigns.
- Successfully defended San Diego's precedent-setting stormwater regulations that are reducing the region’s leading source of pollution from a developer-led lawsuit appealed all the way to the California Supreme Court.