Berkeley Opts Out of Clean Water

By L A Wood

News editorial by L A Wood on the City of Berkeley's failure to implement its federally-mandated Clean Water Program/storm water management. March 11, 2008

"City of Berkeley, the water is murky" has become the latest rap on the city's crumbling storm drain infrastructure. For nearly two decades, Berkeley's Clean Water efforts in controlling surface water pollution have amounted to little more than a "greenwash" of meaningless phrases such as "Save the Bay".

The city's failure to implement our urban runoff program is rooted in its longstanding resistance to adequately fund the maintenance and upkeep of our storm drain system. Berkeley has proclaimed over and over that it is "rolling out the green carpet", but in reality, has used that carpet to cover this inconvenient truth.

Our predicament is not uncommon. The San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) has allowed this situation to continue by its lack of regulatory oversight. The RWQCB has allowed municipalities to voluntarily "comply" with our federally-mandated Clean Water Program. This has left city and county storm water programs awash in a bureaucratic quagmire with no relief in sight.

Read the complete editorial at http://www.4lawood.org