A Bay Area environmental group has given notice this week that it intends to file a citizen lawsuit under the Clean Water Act against the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission on account of “mixed sewage and trash-filled urban runoff” that is discharged into San Francisco Bay during heavy rains.

According to San Francisco Baykeeper, a nonprofit organization that says its mission is “to hold polluters accountable and defend San Francisco Bay,” the annual discharges amount to 1.2 billion gallons, containing 6 percent, or 72 million gallons, of sewage.  

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Joe Dworetzky is a second career journalist. He practiced law in Philadelphia for more than 35 years, representing private and governmental clients in commercial litigation and insolvency proceedings. Joe served as City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia under Mayor Ed Rendell and from 2009 to 2013 was one of five members of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission with responsibility for managing the city’s 250 public schools. He moved to San Francisco in 2011 and began writing fiction and pursuing a lifelong interest in editorial cartooning. Joe earned a Master’s in Journalism from Stanford University in 2020. He covers Legal Affairs and writes long form Investigative stories. His occasional cartooning can be seen in Bay Area Sketchbook. Joe encourages readers to email him story ideas and leads at joe.dworetzky@baycitynews.com.